Clients, Consumers and Customers' Perceptionon Halal Implementation in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Brunei

Abstract

The demand of Halal market is seen to be increasing and has been accepted by both Muslim and Non-Muslim customers. The implementation of Halal certification especially in food and beverages industry is shaped by numerous factors. These include confidence level towards Halal standard and Halal logo and understanding towards the policy red tape that is applied in order to obtain it. As the demand is seen to increase positively, eventually the demand of Halal market will enter into global market, it leads to an understanding the perception of consumers' towards gaining international and global accreditation especially in the context of Brunei Halal market. A survey was conducted among 50 respondents in Brunei via a structured questionnaire and interview in order to evaluate and understand the processes SMEs has to go through during the implementation procedures. A descriptive statistic was used to identify the demographic characteristics and all the factors towards Halal implementation. In general, various demographic characteristics and confidence level were found to be significantly to influence the likelihood of respondents' degree of confidence towards Halal logo and standard that are available and being used. Thus, majority of the respondents are confident towards the assurance of Halal logo with regard to "Halal purity” of the food products and strongly agree on Brunei Halal market gaining international accreditation.