Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, serves as a key Southeast Asian market for food exports from South China. To regulate the halal food market and ensure compliance with religious consumption requirements, Indonesia officially implemented a mandatory halal certification policy on October 17. This significantly tightens market access for imported food, presents new compliance challenges for South Chinese exporters of grain, edible oil, snack foods, prefabricated ingredients and condiments, and forces enterprises to accelerate the upgrading of their halal compliance systems.
The core adjustment under Indonesia’s new October 17 policy is the official cancellation of the transition period for imported food halal certification, achieving full mandatory certification coverage for all imported food and beverage products. In accordance with regulations issued by Indonesia’s Halal Product Assurance Agency (BPJPH), all imported food products entering the Indonesian market must hold officially recognized halal certification as of the effective date. Uncertified products are prohibited from importation, distribution and sales. Violating enterprises may face fines of up to 2 billion Indonesian rupiahs, as well as mandatory product removal and return shipment. This fully terminates the previous lenient policy framework that allowed exemptions and voluntary certification for certain product categories. In addition, the new policy refines certification review criteria and strengthens full-process production traceability supervision. It requires raw material procurement, production and processing, warehousing and logistics to fully comply with halal standards and eliminate cross-contamination with non-halal ingredients.
Endowed with geographical proximity to Southeast Asia, South China is China’s core region for food exports to Indonesia. Food enterprises in Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian have long maintained a significant market share in Indonesia’s imported food sector with products including snacks, canned food, condiments and frozen food. Nevertheless, most small and medium-sized export enterprises still face prominent compliance deficiencies. Some continue to follow outdated access rules and have not obtained official halal certification, or hold unrecognized regional certificates that fail Indonesian customs verification under the new policy. Meanwhile, many enterprises lack standardized production control systems. Non-compliance with BPJPH standards in raw material traceability, production segregation and warehousing zoning has become a major barrier to export compliance.
Facing the stringent new policy requirements, South China’s food export enterprises must take proactive measures to achieve full halal certification compliance. First, enterprises shall align with Indonesia’s official certification system, abandon informal certification channels, and apply for BPJPH-endorsed halal certification. Companies should sort out product categories in advance and complete targeted certification applications for core export products to prevent certification mismatch risks. Second, enterprises shall comprehensively upgrade production management systems, optimize production processes in line with new policy standards, and set up dedicated halal production zones, equipment and warehousing areas. It is necessary to strictly prohibit the use of prohibited ingredients such as pork and alcohol, and improve raw material traceability records and production documentation to meet full-process audit requirements.
Furthermore, leveraging local foreign trade industrial cluster advantages, South Chinese enterprises can integrate industry resources and apply for certification collaboratively to reduce individual certification costs and shorten review cycles. Enterprises should establish a regular policy tracking mechanism to keep updated with rule adjustments from Indonesian customs and halal certification authorities, and timely optimize production and export procedures to mitigate compliance risks. Enterprises that have not yet obtained certification must seize the policy adaptation window to accelerate certification progress and avoid losing market share due to insufficient qualifications.
Indonesia’s new October 17 halal policy represents both a rigorous market access test and an opportunity for South Chinese food exporters to upgrade product quality and enhance international competitiveness. Only by actively adapting to the new policy, standardizing halal certification and improving production compliance systems can enterprises consolidate their core market presence in Indonesia, further explore the Southeast Asian halal food market, and achieve stable and sustainable growth in foreign trade exports.