ISO Halal Pro, Innovated by IPB Student as Halal Certification Assistance Program for UMKM
Initiated by their sense of awareness of halal certification for Small and Medium Enterprises (UMKM), a mentoring program named ISO Halal Pro was proposed by the student of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Ana Fitrotunnisa. Familiarly called Ana by her friends, she proposed her idea which was expressed in her essay for the national competition organized by Sekolah Tinggi Ekonomi Islam (STEI) Sebi. In this competition, Ana won 2nd champion defeated 10 contestants who were successfully passed into the final stage. The ten top finalists were from the University of Gadjah Mada, Gunadarma University, Brawijaya University and Diponegoro University.
The steps taken by this IPB student looks very interesting. The importance of MSME has been recognized in recent years in Indonesia for its significant contribution in gratifying various socio-economic objectives such as higher growth of employment, output, promotion of exports and fostering entrepreneurship. It is well understood that UMKM is a government asset and one of the driving forces in the country's economic development that can specifically improve the resilience of the economy at the household level. his sector even assumes greater importance now as Indonesia moves towards a faster and inclusive growth agenda, namely they encourage equitable distribution of income and distribution of development outcomes; they are flexible and easily adapt easily for the ups and downs of the flow of market demand; and contribute to the provision of food products for public consumption.
The MSME sector is an important pillar of Indonesian economy as it contributes greatly to growth of Indonesian economy, for quality assurance of its products is still lacking. One of which, is halal certification of each product. Indonesians who are predominantly Muslim certainly desperately need this halal guarantee.
According to Shariah Committee Chairman of the International Halal Food, Asrorun Ni'am Sholeh, the certification aims to enable consumers to have a rights-based approach to comply to their religion. "Singapore and Thailand have prepared a variety of halal products to be exported into the Indonesian market. Indonesia should also be prepared to compete with them, to become providers rather than consumers, "he said.
Halal certification should be applied by industrial actors in large or small UMKM. Halal certification process is certainly not a difficult program for large-scale companies, but it become problem for the small UMKM.
ISO Halal Pro is a program to increase halal awareness in the community through the cooperation of SMEs, government, academics (lecturers and students) and LPPOM MUI. LPPOM MUI plays important role in implementing halal certification process including audit process and halal guarantee system. While the government play its role in the procurement of incentives for halal certification and implementation of programs which involves universities, especially students to strengthen the implementation of Tridharma Perguruan Tinggi. (Wied)
