JAKARTA (5/6/2026)

The clock is running. On October 18, 2026, Indonesia will enforce the second phase of its Wajib Halal policy, mandatory halal certification for all products circulating in the Indonesian market. This includes cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, textiles, medical devices, and imported products of every category. There are no exemptions based on country of origin.

For international businesses whose products enter the Indonesian market, this is no longer a matter of long-term planning. It is a legal deadline, and it is close.

This article takes stock of where things stand: what Indonesia has achieved, what structural problems remain unresolved, how the Iran–Israel conflict has introduced new disruptions into an already pressured supply chain, and what foreign businesses need to do right now.

The Legal Framework

The mandatory halal certification requirement is rooted in Law No. 33 of 2014 on Halal Product Assurance, further elaborated through Government Regulation No. 42 of 2024 on the Implementation of Halal Product Assurance. Implementation was designed in two phases.

The first phase, which took effect in October 2024, covered food, beverages, slaughtered animal products, and slaughterhouse services for medium and large enterprises. The second phase, scheduled for October 2026, extends the obligation to cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods including clothing and household appliances, medical devices, and  micro and small enterprises in the food and beverage sector that have not yet obtained certification.

BPJPH Head Ahmad Haikal Hasan has been unambiguous about the scope: all goods entering Indonesia, whether sold, distributed, or circulated, must carry a valid halal certificate. This applies equally to domestically produced goods and imported products.

How Far Has Indonesia Come?

On paper, the numbers are encouraging. By December 2025, BPJPH had issued more than three million halal certificates, covering a cumulative total of 10.9 million certified products. The Free Halal Certification program (Sehati) issued 1,140,015 certificates in 2025, exceeding its annual target by 14 percent. President Prabowo Subianto subsequently raised the bar for 2026, setting a quota of 1.35 million free halal certificates for micro and small enterprises nationwide.

On the international side, BPJPH recorded 3,690 registered foreign halal certificates and 108,657 registered foreign halal products by the end of 2025. This action reflects Indonesia’s growing ambition as a node in the global halal trade network.

But these numbers need context. Indonesia has roughly 60 million MSMEs, approximately 30 million of which operate in the culinary sector alone. Against that backdrop, 10.9 million certified products represent meaningful progress but far from full coverage. The gap between what has been achieved and what must be achieved before October is still substantial.

The Problems That Remain

Several structural issues continue to slow progress, and they are worth understanding in detail both for the Indonesian policymakers working to resolve them, and for foreign businesses trying to navigate the system.

The uneven distribution of halal inspection and facilitation bodies is one of the most persistent obstacles. The Indonesian Ombudsman found that both the Lembaga Pemeriksa Halal (LPH) and the Lembaga Pendamping Proses Produk Halal (LP3H) are not evenly spread across the country. Businesses in regions outside Java face considerably more difficulty accessing the institutions and personnel they need to complete certification.

The digital platform through which all certifications are processed by SIHALAL has experienced repeated technical failures. In June 2024, a ransomware attack on the national temporary data center (PDNS 2) took the platform offline for several days, halting submissions, accreditation processes, and all related services across the entire ecosystem. In February and March 2025, a system maintenance update that was announced to last a few days stretched on for weeks, drawing complaints from the Association of Indonesian Halal Inspection Institutions (ALPHI) and businesses alike. BPJPH has since updated the platform and issued apologies, but the pattern of instability introduces real scheduling risk for businesses that cannot afford delays.

The Ombudsman also flagged capacity constraints inside BPJPH itself by limited personnel, budget constraints, and a post-certification monitoring mechanism that has not yet reached full operational effectiveness. These are not insurmountable problems, but they are real ones.

For manufacturers and importers dealing in textiles, manufactured goods, and consumer products specifically, raw material traceability is perhaps the most technically demanding challenge. The Ministry of Industry has noted that an integrated upstream halal ecosystem has not yet been fully established. Identifying which raw materials and auxiliary inputs contain non-halal substances, particularly animal-derived components, requires systematic audit work that many supply chains, domestic and foreign alike, are not yet equipped to perform efficiently.

Documentation requirements add another layer of complexity. For each material or ingredient in a certified product, suppliers must provide a halal certificate, a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), a Certificate of Analysis (COA), and a declaration confirming the absence of porcine-derived substances. For multinational supply chains, gathering this documentation consistently and in the right format is rarely straightforward.

A New Disruption: The Iran–Israel Conflict and Its Supply Chain Consequences

On top of the structural challenges that were already in place, the escalation of military conflict between Iran and Israel since 2025 has introduced a set of pressures that are directly relevant to halal certification readiness in Indonesia.

The conflict and the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz have caused energy costs and the prices of oil-based and gas-based imported raw materials to spike. Indonesia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has acknowledged that the pressure is already being felt. Brent crude oil has fluctuated between USD 73 and USD 92 per barrel since the conflict intensified, with analysts warning of potential further increases in the range of 15 to 20 percent.

Downstream effects are already visible in industries directly relevant to halal manufacturing. The head of Gapmmi, the association of Indonesian food and beverage producers, reported that packaging costs have surged by as much as 60 percent due to reduced upstream production and shipping disruptions from Middle Eastern suppliers of polyethylene, polypropylene, and related materials. Some producers have reportedly cut daily production levels by up to 30 percent.

According to an analysis from INDEF, the conflict has the potential to depress Indonesian economic growth, particularly through reduced export performance in processed food, oil products, textiles, and metals. Even if a ceasefire were reached in the near term, the damage to energy and petrochemical production facilities in the region means that supply recovery could take months.

For businesses pursuing halal certification, this creates a compounding problem. Any change in raw materials or formulations, whether prompted by supply chain disruption or cost pressures, requires re-verification of the halal status of the affected materials. A product certified under one formulation may require a new audit if its inputs change. This means that disruptions happening outside Indonesia are directly creating additional compliance work for businesses inside and outside its borders.

The Government’s Response: 2,183 Locations, One Day

On June 4, 2026, BPJPH staged what became the country’s most visible single act of halal policy outreach: a simultaneous nationwide socialization campaign across 2,183 locations, earning an official World Record from MURI. The campaign was anchored in Bekasi, West Java, and connected to all other locations via teleconference, with a parallel live stream on the Halal Indonesia TV YouTube channel.

The scale of the event reflects the urgency the government has attached to the October deadline. BPJPH Deputy E.A. Chuzaemi Abidin stated that the implementation of Wajib Halal requires understanding and preparedness from all parties, and urged businesses to use the socialization opportunity to obtain accurate and comprehensive information about their obligations.

At each location, participants could consult directly with halal process facilitators (P3H), obtain information on certification pathways, and in many cases submit certification applications on the spot.

Indonesia’s Larger Ambition

This policy is inseparable from a broader economic project. Indonesia’s halal product exports reached USD 8.28 billion in 2024, and BPJPH has been actively building the international architecture to grow that figure. Cooperation frameworks with other countries operate through government-to-government, business-to-business, and government-to-business channels. The Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) signed with Thailand’s Central Islamic Council is one example: it allows mutual recognition of halal quality assurance between the two countries and smooths trade along a bilateral relationship worth USD 17.6 billion in 2025.

BPJPH Secretary-General Muhammad Aqil Irham has described Indonesia as one of the world’s largest Muslim consumer markets, one that holds promising opportunities for both domestic and international businesses provided they hold the right credentials.

The country’s halal product assurance system is, by BPJPH’s own account, increasingly referenced internationally. The goal, as stated by BPJPH leadership, is for Indonesia to become not merely the world’s largest halal consumer, but a center of halal innovation, standardization, and cooperation.

What Foreign Businesses Need to Do

Given all of the above, the practical path forward for international companies exporting to Indonesia is clear, even if not always simple.

The first step is confirming whether your product categories fall under the October 2026 obligation such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, consumer goods, medical devices, and food and beverage products from smaller enterprises are all in scope. If your company has not yet mapped its exposure, that mapping should begin immediately.

If your country has a halal certification body that BPJPH has formally recognized through an MRA or bilateral agreement, certification through that body is the most efficient available pathway. The list of recognized foreign halal bodies (LHLN) is available through BPJPH’s official website. If no such body exists for your country, the application must be filed directly through the SIHALAL platform.

A thorough audit of your supply chain is essential before you begin. Every raw material, auxiliary ingredient, and processing aid needs to be reviewed for halal status — not only in principle, but in documentation. Given the current disruptions to petrochemical and materials supply chains, it is worth reviewing whether any recent sourcing changes have affected materials for which you may already hold halal documentation.

Gathering supplier documentation takes time, particularly for international supply chains where suppliers may be unfamiliar with Indonesia-specific requirements. Starting this process early is the single most effective way to avoid bottlenecks as the October deadline approaches.

Given the history of technical instability on the SIHALAL platform, it would be unwise to leave submission until the last few weeks. Building in time for potential system downtime is a practical precaution, not an excess.

For complex cases multi-ingredient products, products with animal-derived inputs, or products manufactured across multiple countries engaging a consultant with direct experience in Indonesia’s halal regulatory ecosystem is strongly advisable.

A Final Word

October 2026 is not simply a regulatory milestone. It is a market access threshold. In a country of more than 270 million people whose majority  are Muslim, and a government increasingly serious about enforcement products without valid halal certification will face removal from distribution networks. That is not a hypothetical risk. It is the stated policy.

The structural challenges Indonesia is working through, from uneven infrastructure to digital platform instability to a supply chain environment stressed by geopolitical conflict, make the process harder than it should be. But they do not change the deadline. For foreign businesses, the most straightforward response to complexity is to begin earlier, document more carefully, and assume that the process will take longer than expected. Businesses that complete certification ahead of the deadline will not just avoid a legal risk they will hold a market advantage in one of the most dynamic consumer economies in the world.

REFERENCES

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