[NEWS] ARMM poultry bound for the Middle East

(Of course there is good news from the ARMM. With fingers crossed, I am optimistic this will help put the region back on the business map.)

DAVAO CITY (Courtesy of MindaNews/20 July) -- Around 15 tons of poultry products
from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) are being eyed as
the pilot shipment to the Middle East starting in December.

Romeo Serra, president of the Mindanao Business Council (MinBC), told
reporters Thursday that once the Philippines gets a halal
certification from a Brunei accreditation body through an agreement
with the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia Philippines East Asia Growth Area
cooperation, it will be an all systems go for the delivery of chicken
from a farm in the 123-hectare economic zone in Parang, Maguindanao to
Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Halal, which is a way of slaughtering farm animals in accordance with
Islamic practices, involves hygienic and disease-free preparation of
foods "from farm to plate."

Those that pass halal quality control will have labels marked with a
halal seal so Muslim consumers will be guided accordingly.

Serra said the initial volume, which is only two percent of the market
demand in the Middle East, will be a pilot export of the local halal
industry. More volume and other halal products will be exported if the
pilot shipment will be successful and once the halal accreditation
firms up.

He said that the ARMM poultry's export to the Middle East will be the
result of cooperation among member countries in the BIMP-EAGA -- using
feeds from Indonesia's corn industry, utilizing the marketing
expertise of Malaysia and the "trusted and widely-accepted" Brunei
halal accreditation.

Serra said the ARMM's halal certification body, including government
officials from the ARMM's Department of Trade and Industry and the
private sector, will go to Brunei in August to work on the
accreditation.

The government's 2004-2010 Medium Term Development Plan has envisioned
ARMM to be the halal-based food production center of the country.
(Walter I. Balane / MindaNews)