Understanding the Halal Dining/Food behavior in the ASEAN region

Food and travel have one thing in common: they both make the world go round. For Muslims, the availability of Halal food is an essential faith-based need that they look for in their daily lives.

As travel was restricted at the beginning of this year, we expanded our studies to deep dive into the F&B industry and how it can better engage with Muslim diners when destinations ease COVID-19 restrictions. The first in this series of "Halal Food Lifestyle Reports" was on Singapore's vibrant Halal food scene, released in March 2021. The 2nd report in this series will be the "Halal Food Lifestyle Indonesia report 2021, which we will release at the "Halal Dining ASEAN Forum 2021" on the 15th December 2021. 

Mastercard-CrescentRating Halal Food Lifestyle Singapore 2021 Report

For this premier report series, we chose Singapore as the first market to analyze as it is known for being a food haven and fusion of cultures. Singapore has a vibrant Halal food scene, with a wide variety of cuisines offered as Halal. The republic is also the top non-OIC Muslim-friendly destination in the Global Muslim Travel Index. Accordingly, this report takes an in-depth look at the Halal food lifestyle market size, including the preferences and behaviors of Muslim consumers in Singapore. 

Singapore Muslims' expenditure on dining and delivery is estimated to be SGD 700 Million in 2019. Despite the dampening of the Halal food industry growth due to COVID-19, the medium-term domestic market potential remains relevant.

With local Muslim millennials being the key driving force of this sector's growth, Singapore's Halal food scene has seen a rapid expansion in providing a wide variety of Halal cuisines. Although local cuisines still dominate the Halal eateries space, Asian cuisines are now more widely available as Halal options. The report highlights the gaps and opportunities in the variety of Halal cuisine available in Singapore.

Price remains the primary factor influencing purchasing decisions. Despite the increasing trend of health-consciousness among Singaporeans, respondents rated nutrition level as a less important factor. Thus, there is still a gap in the perceived importance of nutritional considerations among Singaporeans during actual purchasing decisions.

Finally, when it comes to Halal assurance, the insights reveal that consumers have three different levels of perceived assurance in response to current Halal assurance practices by establishments in the industry.

While signages such as 'No Pork No Lard' may be relatively easier to implement, more robust Halal assurance, including certification and rating, leads to greater trust and brand building with Muslim consumers.

You can download the report here. Watch the launch Webinar here.

AHalal Dining ASEAN Forum 2021

The Halal Food Lifestyle Indonesia 2021 report will be released at the "Halal Dining ASEAN Forum (HDAF) 2021" on 15th December 2021 Insha Allah. Hosted by CrescentRating, HDAF 2021 will bring together key stakeholders in the tourism and F&B sector to share insights, best practices, ideas, challenges, and opportunities as we prepare for the opening of the economies after two challenging years.

The forum theme 'Towards a Sustainable Halal Dining Eco-System" aims to facilitate the development of an economically sustainable Halal dining eco-system, which puts consumer well-being and environmental protection as its core values. 

HDAF 2021 will have discussions on "Sustainability & Ethics in Dining - From an Islamic perspective", "Increasing Halal food diversity at destinations", "Overcoming challenges in Halal gourmet cuisine", "Web's Most Searched Questions on Halal Dining", "Payments & Cybersecurity in the dining eco-system" and more.

You can register to attend the virtual event here.

Mastercard-CrescentRating Halal Food Lifestyle Indonesia 2021 Report

The HDAF 2021 will also see the Mastercard-CrescentRating Halal Food Lifestyle Indonesia 2021 Report launch. It was developed in partnership with Komite Nasional Ekonomi dan Keuangan Syariah (KNEKS). 

Indonesia has been consistently ranked as one of the top Muslim-friendly destinations in the Mastercard-Crescentrating Global Muslim Travel Index and is the country with the largest Muslim population.

The report takes an in-depth look at the Halal food lifestyle market size, including the preferences and behavior of Muslim consumers in Indonesia. Years of cross-cultural influence with the Indians, Arabs, Portuguese, English, and most importantly, Chinese have given rise to rich and diverse Indonesian cuisine. Indonesian local cuisines are still the most popular, especially Javanese cuisine. However, regional cuisines are becoming increasingly popular. Lately, the rising popularity of Japanese and Korean cuisine has added another dimension to its vast offering. 

Kaki Lima (Street Food) is such a crucial part of the Indonesian lifestyle. It also accounts for a considerable portion of the Halal dining economy. As such, in this report, we have done an in-depth analysis of this sector which is a lifeline for both consumers and the Kaki Lima service providers.

The report will also deep dive into how technology influences Halal diners, consumer well-being, and environmental protection.

Although the local consumers have been the primary driving force in propelling the growth of the Indonesian Halal dining sector, this new beginning will also be the time to reimagine how Indonesia could become a Halal cuisine haven in the region.

The F&B sector will play a crucial role in rejuvenating the economy as Indonesia comes out of the COVID-19 crisis. 

Preparing for 2022

While destinations are determined to open all economic activities, there is still the threat of new COVID-19 variants emerging. Nevertheless, we stay hopeful that life will begin to return to some form of normality in 2022.

We are committed to helping all stakeholders to accelerate the recovery by providing in-depth research on travel and F&B sectors. We hope the insights in these reports will assist the start-ups and existing F&B players to unlock new opportunities to expand the Halal food offering to Muslim diners.