The Council of Agriculture of the Executive Yuan added new kinetic energy to the global vision and practical experience of Taiwan's halal business opportunities and entrusted Commerce Development Research Institute on July 17, 2008. An international forum on "2019 Mastering the Halal Food Market" was held. Many foreign experts from the Muslim markets in Malaysia, South Korea and Indonesia, domestic long-term research halal market scholars and experienced halal entrepreneurs are invited.

  The deputy minister Huang, Chin-Cheng of the Council of Agriculture, was invited to give an opening speech. Deputy minister Huang said, "There is a vast halal market in Southeast Asia. We did not know about it before. After many people have learned it in recent years, we will try our best to enter the halal market and improve the quality of agriculture." He also pointed out that since 2016, the halal market has been the focus of the development since the beginning of the government proposed the new southbound policy. The quality of Taiwan's agricultural and aquatic products has long been highly valued by the export market and has great advantages in the international market. The COA has actively travelled to the ASEAN market in the past two years. In 2017, it led 15 sub-agricultural manufacturers to participate in the ASEAN Taiwan Image Exhibition of the Foreign Trade Association. So far, eight agents, distributors or overseas extension points have been signed with agents, and the business opportunity is estimated to reach 20 million NTD. When entering the halal market, there are still many restrictions on the products related to the consumption of people's livelihood products. It is especially important to obtain "halal certification" and products that meet market demand, so to understand the global halal market trend, analyze the halal food market, and master halal. The benefits behind the certification, to the layout of the halal agricultural and aquatic products industry supply chain, COA has commissioned CDRI to handle the "Taiwanese agricultural and aquatic products and processed products manufacturers and Muslim market buyers matching" since 2017, providing a solution to the value chain gap for Taiwan's agricultural and aquatic products enterprises. The service platform has further selected 27 outstanding domestic brands. The product range includes a variety of cereals, fruits and vegetables, and fishery and fish processing products. This year,  CDRI held a series of seminars in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to provide overseas local food market analysis and buyer information, to help Taiwan's high-quality agricultural and water enterprises to deepen their international competitiveness and grasp the foreseeable trend. "The standard of halal is higher than other international markets, so today we invite many guests to share relevant knowledge and hope to help us explore the halal market."

  Chairman Tain-Tsair Hsu of the CDRI also pointed out that the advantages of Taiwanese companies in advancing the halal market are the experience and efforts of technology, capital and commercial trade, but the layout is not very limited. At present, the investment amount has grown faster than the trade amount because of the long-term. It takes at least three years to see the result. At this time, CDRI is to play a key role in bringing new technologies to the new market, and to help the industry by focusing on the research results of various countries and markets.

  Chairman Hsu Through further explained: through the several visits in recent years, CDRI has also established a communication platform between think tanks, with the ASEAN countries, and continuously exchanges the current situation of the consumer markets in Southeast Asia. The two sides can point out the obstacles encountered in the trade, and then find out solutions, and further assist the industry in developing new products with better suitability, which are more easily accepted by the market when importing goods.

  The first session of the forum was entitled “Global Halal Food Market Trends and Outlook”, and the Vice president Hairol Ariffein Sahari of HDC, a government-licensed company responsible for coordinating and developing the halal industry in Malaysia, provided a unique perspective on industrial development with the vision of a professional organization of the halal business. He pointed out that Malaysia has developed a halal industry ecosystem for 40 years, and with the support of the government, it provides incentives for halal operators. Malaysia has more than 8,500 halal companies, which bring huge business opportunities and employment to Malaysia; Supply for Muslim populations is much lower than the demand, we should seize the opportunity of the market and cooperate." Vice President Jeniffer Chang of CDRI also gave a keynote speech, she pointed out that it is very important to let Muslims consume high quality Taiwanese food. The second session was entitled "How to Practice Halal Business -Start with Business and Industry", and the Director of the Korean Muslim Federation (KMF) Ahmad Cho, shared the history and experience of the local development of the halal industry.

  In the afternoon, Professor Dr. Irwandi Jaswir from International Islamic University Malaysia, and Prof. Huang-Zhao, Li from National Chung-Hsing University, who has been cultivating international agricultural products for many years, jointly analyzed how to successfully join in the halal food market. He pointed out that the overall value of the Muslim market is about three trillion, such as food and non-food industries account for a large proportion. Finally, CDRI arranged two outstanding Taiwanese manufacturers in the halal market and shared their experiences, which includes the manufacture of various types of grain processing and manufacturing, the production of various nutritional supplement drinks and ready-to-eat cereal processed products.

  The Council of Agriculture and CDRI hope that with the international forum, they will lead Taiwan's high-quality agricultural brands to accelerate the layout of the ASEAN and West Asia markets and let more brands grasp Muslim halal business opportunities, with halal certification and marketing resources, conquering the international Muslim markets!