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Bangladesh recently became the newest member of the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIC), an affiliate organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to start certifying Halal goods and services. Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution will soon start its services based on the SMIIC standard as the country exports different food and non-food items to the OIC member countries. Exporters say that this certification would help to explore more markets and export diversified items to OIC countries.
Bangladesh Fruits Vegetables and Allied Products Exporters’ Association president SM Jahangir said that Bangladesh already produces all halal goods as it is majorly a Muslim country, but as some countries demand halal certification on the products it has become a necessity to do so.
‘Export of the products that require halal certification will expand to OIC countries from now,’ he mentions.
International cooperation wing deputy secretary Mohammad Showkat Ali of the Ministry of Industries mentioned that the government allowed BSTI to get the SMIIC membership in hopes that this certification might boost exports.
BSTI, which is already certifying halal foods in cooperation with other agencies for the domestic market, will start its certification process soon, said officials.
He said that BSTI needs to wait two more years to issue halal certification under the logo of SMIIC as the agency will take the time to observe the BSTI’s expertise.
Bangladesh is one of the consumer goods exporters to the Muslim majority countries, particularly to the Middle East where halal certification of food is very important.
SMIIC was established in 2010 as the competent body of the OIC, the second largest inter-governmental organization, for developing standards and achieving uniformity in metrology, laboratory testing, and standardization activities among member states.
At present, there are 46 members and three observers of SMIIC with its headquarters in Istanbul while OIC has 57 members.
Photo Credits: BSTI
