Halal Supply Chain Ecosystem in Malaysian context

Abstract

Global demand for Halal food is growing and currently about a quarter of world food trade with a value of annual Halal food trade about 2 trillion USD by 2020. During last few decades researches on Halal food began with demand side of market economy showing customer need & satisfaction issues, gradually researchers turned to supply side of Halal food industry exploring Halal integrity issues which has revealed that transportation & transiting has higher risk than manufacturing while determining Halal integrity of Halal products. Halal supply chain eco system along with all stakeholders have emerged as new freight service industry which is preferred by customers due to its perceived cleaner-safer & hygienic services. In current COVID 19 pandemic context causing global GDP shrinkage and trade wars across countries will adversely impact this Halal supply chain industry indicating need for rethinking on efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability of this emerging industry. Halal supply chain services are eco-friendly, preferred by customer and produces higher gross social welfare, but those benefits come along with a higher production cost compared to ordinary supply chain services. Hence policy incentives besides other sustainability strategies would be necessary for growth considerations of Halal supply chain ecosystem. This, theory adaptation category conceptual paper endeavors to analyze Halal integrity and sustainability nexus of freight forwarding services in an emerging Halal supply chain ecosystem in Malaysian context.