Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has said that Indonesia’s halal value chain (HVC) in the agricultural and food sectors has grown positively to even beat GDP (gross domestic product) growth.

“The growth of the main HVC sectors such as agriculture and food keeps increasing and is above the national GDP growth,” Amin noted while opening the Indonesia Sharia Summit 2021 via video conferencing from his official residence here on Wednesday.

The positive growth has been strengthened by the increase in people’s online spending and consumption amid the enforcement of public activity restrictions (PPKM) for controlling COVID-19 spread.

“Bank Indonesia said that the growth was enhanced by online public spending on halal products, which are dominated by Muslim fashion products and halal cosmetics,” he explained.

In 2020, HVC growth reached -1.72 percent, which was better than Indonesia’s GDP, which grew -2.07 percent, Amin pointed out.

Market demand for food commodities during the pandemic has also continued to improve, especially in the agricultural and halal food sectors, he said.

“Twenty-four percent of national business activities are supported by the HVC sector market,” he added.

Indonesian halal food products accounted for 15 percent of the global halal food exports in 2019, Amin said. This figure is equivalent to US$30 billion, out of the global halal food exports of US$200 billion in 2019, he added.

In 2020, the value of Indonesia’s halal food exports grew 17 percent, or equivalent to US$34 billion of the global export value, the Vice President said.

With this improvement and supported by its potential, it is hoped that Indonesia can become the country with the largest sharia economic and financial sector, he added.

“Indonesia has the opportunity to become the largest country for the sharia economic and financial sector. We have great potential,” he remarked.

Source: Antara News