LOS BAÑOS, Laguna: A Halal Science and Technology and One Health Knowledge Center for Southeast Asia will soon be established at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) with support from the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) here.

Project leader Dr. Yusuf Sucol of the UPLB-School of Environmental Science and Management said the Halal center will be hosted by the UPLB-Sesam.

The Halal center has been envisioned to be a virtual one-stop, open-access regional hub for country-to-country and cross-country government-academe-industry exchanges of knowledge and resources related to the growing Halal and One Health global ecosystems.

"Halal is a growing and promising global market valued at $2.5 trillion in 2020, largely in the food industry," Sucol, also the UPLB focal person for the Halal center, said.

Citing a report by Imarat Consultants (IC), Searca Director Dr. Glenn Gregorio said countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia and China drive the halal market forward.

"In Southeast Asia, regional competition has stimulated the local and global markets for halal products," Gregorio said.

In terms of halal promotion, IC, a specialist consultancy that has a dedicated field of focus on the global halal market, named Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand as the leaders in Southeast Asia, according to Searca.

Searca also noted the 17th Malaysia International Halal Showcase 2021 opened on September 9 with the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia having the most number of exhibitors among 44 participating countries.

UPLB-Sesam Dean Dr. Rico Ancog said the first phase of the UPLB-Searca project is to conceptualize the halal industry and One Health ecosystem as an emerging innovation for growth and development.

"As a unique value proposition, this initiative aims to combine halal requirements with One Health concepts to afford a more integrative lens in looking into how livestock and ecosystems could be better managed in a more sustainable way," Ancog said.

Meanwhile, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Minister of Science and Technology was consulted in a recent meeting that discussed the project and halal-related programs.

Ancog explained that part of creating the virtual knowledge center is to incorporate the concept of "One Health" into its mandate aiming to demonstrate the interconnection of the halal ecosystem and zoonoses amid the changes in climate and environment.

"The project will also build up the halal resource database of Southeast Asian countries," he added.