Vietnam pushes to develop potential of halal market

Ho Chi Minh City is actively expanding its exports to the halal market, viewing it as a strategic direction for achieving market diversification and promoting economic growth.

In 2025, the halal industry is expected to continue its robust development in markets such as Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The trends in halal food development in 2025 will help reshape the global halal business environment, bringing numerous opportunities but also imposing higher demands on enterprises to quickly adapt to the new development situation.

Vietnam is no exception, actively integrating into this development trend. From January to July 2025, Vietnam's total exports to major halal markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) amounted to nearly $11 billion. However, experts point out that this figure still does not fully reflect Vietnam's potential advantages.

Therefore, Ho Chi Minh City and the entire country urgently need to formulate a comprehensive, synchronized, and long-term vision halal industry development strategy. This strategy should coordinate the promotion of institutional reforms, enhance enterprise competitiveness, cultivate high-quality human resources, and actively and efficiently promote international cooperation.

Huu Thi Juan, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Trade and Investment Promotion Center (ITPC), stated that besides the potential development opportunities, enterprises across the country, especially those in Ho Chi Minh City, face numerous challenges in exporting halal products.

Firstly, Vietnam still lacks widely recognized halal certification agencies on an international scale. Domestic halal certification activities are relatively fragmented, and there is a lack of effective coordination between relevant departments and units. This has brought many obstacles to enterprises in opening up halal export markets, especially in certification verification, quality inspection, and specialized logistics operations to meet the strict requirements of Islamic countries.

According to Ms. Huu Thi Juan, most Vietnamese export enterprises are engaged in food and agricultural product processing, and they are mostly small and medium-sized with limited financial capacity, weak management levels, and a lack of in-depth understanding of halal standards. They also have significant shortcomings in the application and acquisition of modern technology.

Moreover, the lack of information and strategic guidance on the halal market has caused many enterprises to not actively participate in and effectively develop this potential market. Notably, the absence of professional talent teams with comprehensive knowledge of the halal value chain, covering all aspects from production, processing, packaging, logistics, marketing, and distribution, is becoming a major obstacle for Vietnam's halal industry in its professionalization and deep integration into the global supply chain.

If a set of well-thought-out export strategies is not formulated, combined with the development of national halal brands and the enhancement of internal capabilities, Vietnamese enterprises, especially those in Ho Chi Minh City, will face numerous challenges in brand positioning and maintaining a stable position in the global market. The Vietnamese Trade Office in Indonesia pointed out that Indonesia's halal product and service consumption market is enormous, expected to reach over $330 billion in 2025.

However, in 2024, Vietnam's exports of halal products to Indonesia amounted to approximately $54 million, accounting for less than 1% of Vietnam's total exports to Indonesia, and a very small proportion in Indonesia's total halal product imports of $14 billion. Currently, the main export products to the Indonesian market include candies and other products produced by foreign brands with factories in Vietnam.