Africa-Press – Tanzania. MICO Halal International Certification Bureau has urged Tanzanians to use products with halal certification especially meat for the safety of their health.
This was said yesterday by MICO Secretary Sheikh Jumanne Kasonso when he was speaking to this paper about the importance of using halal products at his office at Butiama Building Magomeni in Dar es Salaam.
MICO is the only certified agent for Tanzania Muslim Council (BAKWATA) which certifies Halal products to be used in the country and products to be sold outside the country.
“Halal is an Arabic word meaning lawful it refers to things or actions permitted by Shariah law without punishment imposed on the order and the opposite of Halal is Haram which means forbidden, halal certification means that food has been subjected to approve certification system which guarantees to consumers that nothing in the food has any forbidden components,” said Sheikh Kasonso Recently MICO International Halal Bureau of Certification got international recognition from Hafsa Halal Certification and Food Import and Export Limited of Turkey and was certified to be the only Halal agent in the country.
Speaking about the importance of having a Halal international certificate, Sheikh Kasonso said that Tanzanian products will be easily accepted in the international market especially meat and help the economic growth of the country through different taxes which will be paid.
“There are many countries which does not accept products which are not certified by Halal so by having this Halal certificate it means from now our products will penetrate everywhere in the world so we must be proud for this achievement,” he said adding that
“We were getting loss because our Tanzanian companies were forced to find Halal certification outside the country when they needed to export their products but now that is no longer the case because we have our own MICO Halal certification which is the agent of Bakwata,” he said He added that in order to improve Halal services in the country Bakwata and its partner MICO Halal International are requesting the government to enable them to have a modern Halal laboratory.
He said the government should help to tell the business community that Halal certification is currently available in the country and there is no need to find it outside the country as was the case before.
