Awareness and intention to register halal certification of micro and small-scale food enterprises

Abstract

Background: This paper discusses halal awareness of food micro and small-scale enterprises (food MSEs) in West Java Province, Indonesia. Halal awareness is the first step toward obtaining halal certificates, which confirm that the product is lawful according to Islamic Sharia. Unfortunately, most of the food sold on the market do not have halal certificates due to a lack of halal awareness and intention on the part of the entrepreneurs. Methods: This study aims at measuring the level of halal awareness and the intention of food MSE entrepreneurs to register halal certification. Halal awareness is assumed to be influenced by knowledge of halal and MSEs' entrepreneurial perceptions of the benefits of halal certificates. Furthermore, halal awareness, attitudes, and perceptions of ease of procedures will encourage the intention to register halal certification. An electronic Google Form with a cover letter and a set of questionnaires was distributed to collect data. Structural Equation Modelling – Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) was chosen to evaluate the adopted theoretical models in the exploratory research. Results: The results show that halal awareness is influenced by knowledge of halal and perceptions of benefits. Moreover, halal awareness influences positively the intention to obtain a halal certificate, but the intention is not significantly affected by attitudes and perceptions of procedures for obtaining halal certification. This shows that halal awareness will increase the intention to register halal certification. However, it does not impact attitudes/actions to register for halal certification due to the misconceptions about the procedures for obtaining halal certificates. Conclusions: Micro and small entrepreneurs in West Java Province, Indonesia have a good level of awareness about halal food. However, their products are not halal-certified due to the perceptions of the procedures for obtaining halal certificates, which are relatively complicated and costly for micro and small-scale businesses.

Awareness and intention to register halal certification of micro and small-scale food enterprises

“…A copy of the list of West Java MSEs registered in the Office of Cooperatives and Small Businesses in West Java Province obtained from the Central Bureau of Statistics of West Java can be found in Underlying Data. 40 The Categorization of business scale refers to the "Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 20/2008" (Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 20/2008). 41 According to that law, the criteria for micro-enterprises are as follows:…”

“…A copy of the distributed questionnaires can be found in Extended Data. 40 The questionnaire was pretested with a small sample of members of the West Java MSME association before being distributed to the actual respondents. Based on pretest feedback, the wording of some items was refined and modified to guarantee that the validity and reliability of each variable meet the required standard.…”

“…Data are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0).Extended dataFigshare: List of questions of descriptions of the questionnaire of Awareness and Intention to Register Halal Certification; https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.20488590 42. This project includes the following extended data:-A copy of the questionnaire Data are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0).…”

Empowerment of Micro Entrepreneurs Providing Halal Canteens Through Training and Assistance

“…Government regulation encounters several obstacles in its implementation, namely the lack of knowledge about halal products, halal certification, and the benefits of halal certification, so training is needed to increase halal awareness. Socialization of halal awareness only shows an increase in intention to register for halal certification [10] but has not increased attitudes and actions to register for halal certification from canteen micro micro-entrepreneurs to procedures, costs, and time constraints. To register and obtain halal certification for their products [11], it is, therefore, necessary to provide further guidance and assistance so that micro canteen entrepreneurs can run a product halal assurance system and obtain halal certification for their products.…”

Halal Certification Management in Indonesia

“…The Indonesian government has required halal certification for all products ranging from food, cosmetics, to medicines based on the rules of Law No. 33 of 2014 concerning Halal Product Guarantee (Oemar et al, 2022). The certification process is divided into two types, namely the general process for largescale businesses and the self-declarative process for MSMEs.…”