Based on the long-standing bilateral cooperation between Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) and the ICRIC, Iranian side coordinated the visit of Malaysian representatives coming to Iran in order to audit three large dairy companies. According to the laws of Malaysia, the goods that enter Malaysia must have a halal logo from one of the institutions approved by them. The ICRIC is the only institution in Iran that has been able to be included in the JAKIM list of approved foreign Halal Certification Centers, which means that Iranian goods that are exported to Malaysia must obtain the Halal logo from ICRIC.In 2021, after the implementation of new laws for the recognition of foreign halal certification centers by Jakim Malaysia, the ICRIC was audited and recognized and included in the list of approved institutions of that country.
Due to the fact that the import of protein materials including dairy products in Malaysia is subject to strict laws, the Veterinary Organization and Jakim of Malaysia are closely investigating the cases and controlling the quality of the goods. Therefore, a delegation from Malaysia entered Iran for site audit and visiting three dairy companies, Kale Amol, Pegah Isfahan and Ramek Shiraz.
According to the arrangements made, the ICRIC hosted the Malasian audit committee on Monday, the 7th of November. In this meeting, Dr. Karbasi, Director General of ICRIC, while welcoming the guests, pointed out the amount of trade between Iran and Malaysia, according to which the value of Iran's imports last year was about 565 million dollars, while the value of Iran's exports was only about 82 million dollars. and these figures show the trade imbalance, while the potential of the country's food industry and other Iranian export products is much higher than these figures, and Iran's neighboring countries have been able to take the most advantage of Iran's absence and conquer the Malaysian market.
The capacity to develop Iran's food trade to Malaysia is very high, so Iranian companies interested in exploiting this capacity and entering the Malaysian market are invited to benefit from its special services by becoming a member of ICRIC. It was also emphasized that in order to reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries, the financial authorities should provide the basis for the development of the export of goods that can be sold in the Malaysian market.
In regard with the standards, he also explained that ICRIC appliess the standards approved by the Institute of Standardization and Metrology of Islamic Countries, which is a subset of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, to prepare halal audit processes and halal control. These standards are approved by most of the member countries, and some countries such as Malaysia, which have standards specific to their country, differ from these standards in some small details. At the same time, the similarity in establishing the necessary standards for the approval of the halal certificate and the same requirements will make this cooperation as easy as possible.
Ms. Noraine Binti Hamzah, the representative of Jakim, expressed her satisfaction with this cooperation and stated that she was very pleased with the visit of the ICRIC officials. She regarded the cooperation with ICRIC as positive and appreciated the coordination made to visit dairy companies. In the following, they explained the special standards in Malaysia and mentioned the problem of the halal sector in Malaysia in the slaughtering process. Considering the multitude of differences and religions in that country, it has been very difficult to agree on a single standard in slaughtering, and for other goods, they faced this challenge less. Despite the presence of various Chinese, Indian, etc. nationals in that country, the government insists that all imported goods be halal, both in terms of the health of these products and in terms of providing for the majority of the Malaysian society, which is Muslim.
At the end of the meeting, ICRIC's representative went to visit three dairy companies, Kale, Pegah, and Ramek, to accompany this delegation and provide explanations regarding the process of issuing halal certificates.
