Halal requirements are spreading across international markets, and Indonesia offers one of the clearest recent examples. On October 16, the government moved the mandatory certification deadlines for imported food and beverages, cosmetics, and several other categories from October 2026 to October 2028. Officials linked the delay partly to completing mutual recognition agreements, and the country has so far signed 109 such agreements with certification bodies from 39 countries. Reliable certification might take longer to build than a deadline allows.
The stakes extend well beyond one country. According to DinarStandard's State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2025/26, halal food spending reached $1.53 trillion in 2024 and is projected to exceed $2 trillion by 2029. As more markets make certification mandatory, more products may need to prove their status at more borders. That growth could place pressure on standards that were never designed to work together. Speed may matter less than whether consumers can rely on what each certificate says.
