Three separate news items, one direction: Islamic markets are raising the bar for Halal certification and rewarding those who are already well organised. For an Italian food company that exports, or wants to export, ignoring these signals means missing windows that close quickly.
At the Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS 2026), held in Kuala Lumpur at the end of September 2026, Malaysia issued a clear challenge to producers: it is no longer enough to be Halal-certified, you need to become Halal-competitive. The distinction is not just semantic. Holding a certificate is the minimum condition for entry; competing in the Halal market means combining quality, traceability, the ability to meet the requirements of several countries at once and speed in adapting to evolving regulations. ASEAN's stated objective is to reach USD 5 trillion in the global Halal economy: a figure that turns the sector from a niche into a strategic priority.
For an Italian food company, this change of perspective has immediate practical consequences. It is not about adopting an ideology, but about responding to enormous and increasingly regulated commercial demand.
The most urgent news for those exporting, or wanting to export, to the Gulf countries concerns Oman. Oman's Food Safety and Quality Center has announced that from 1 July 2027, Halal certificates for food imports will be accepted only if issued by certification bodies designated by the Center itself. Certificates issued by unrecognised bodies will not allow goods to enter the country.
This article updates what has already been published on this blog, but it should be read together with the other signals from the same week: this is not an isolated case, but a structural trend consolidating across several markets at once. The logic is the same everywhere: importing countries want certainty that checks have been carried out by verifiable, recognised and accountable parties. If you are not on the list, you do not get through.
What should an Italian company actually do? First of all, check whether its Halal certification body is already listed, or in the process of being designated, with the Omani authorities. Second, start certification well ahead of the July 2027 deadline: audit, documentation and certificate-issue times vary, and waiting until the last quarter means risking arriving too late.
Another significant piece of news from MIHAS 2026 concerns the creation of the Malaysia-Indonesia Halal Council, announced jointly by the governments of the two countries. The aim is to harmonise Halal certification requirements and procedures between the two markets, reducing the bureaucratic steps that currently force companies to obtain separate and not always compatible certifications.
For an Italian company that exports, or aims to export, to both Malaysia and Indonesia — the two largest Islamic markets in South-East Asia — a new scenario is opening up. In the short term, JAKIM (Malaysia) and BPJPH (Indonesia) will continue to coexist as regulators, and the technical requirements of the two systems remain distinct. In the medium term, however, greater alignment could simplify procedures for those operating on both fronts.
The practical point for today: having a certification body recognised by both authorities is already a concrete competitive advantage, because it allows applications to be managed in a coordinated way rather than duplicating efforts.
An indirect but useful signal comes from the cosmetics sector: South Korean K-beauty companies are using Halal certification as an explicit lever to access Muslim markets, and the commercial results are positive. The logic is identical to the one that should guide an Italian food producer: certification is not a cost, it is a positioning tool that opens otherwise closed channels.
Italy has an enormous reputation for food quality. The problem is that this reputation alone is not enough to open the doors of a market with specific, verifiable regulatory requirements. Halal certification is the document that translates Italian quality into a format an importer in Kuala Lumpur, Dubai or Muscat can read.
The signals coming from Kuala Lumpur, Muscat and Seoul in the same week are no coincidence: Islamic markets are organising themselves to select suppliers more rigorously and systematically. For an Italian food company, this is both a risk — if you are not ready — and an opportunity — if you get ahead of the competition. HQC Italia, recognised in more than 50 Islamic countries, can provide a free quote within 24 hours.
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