Halal Accreditation Agency

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Population

33,000,000

Capital City

Riyadh

Currency

Saudi Riyal (SAR)

Volume of Trade

Percentage of Muslim

99 %

GDP per Capita (Nominal)

56,817 $

GENERAL INFORMATION

Official religion of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has a population of 34,2 million, is Islam. Besides the role of being the Chairman of the Board of Directors of SMIIC, the country takes place in Halal Food (TC1), Halal Cosmetics (TC2), Service Site Issues (TC3), Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (TC4), Tourism and Related Services (TC5), Transportation (TC7), Leather and Tanning Material (TC8), Textiles and Related Products (TC9), Halal Supply Chain (TC10), Halal Management Systems (TC11), Dangerous Goods Transportation (TC12), Jewellery (TC13), Oil and Related Products (TC14), Halal Pharmaceuticals Issues (TC16) technical committees and SMIIC Committee on Standards for Conformity Assessment (SMIIC/CCA).

Petroleum and petroleum products constitute most of the exports of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The main product groups to be imported are food, beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products and halal certificates are requested only in food and animal products for imports from non-Muslim countries for now. In addition, facilities in the exporting countries are also registered by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA).[1] Brazil, Australia, Pakistan and India are leader exporters to the Kingdom in bovine meat and Australia and New Zealand are in ovine meat. Regarding the imports in dairy, honey and egg sectors, New Zealand, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands are the leading countries and Turkey has a share of 4.5% with the amount of 86.5 million USD. And regarding the pharmaceuticals sector, Germany, the USA and France are in the top of the list of the exporting countries to the Kingdom.

Halal Certification Activities

The Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) is the authorized competent institution in the country in all issues relevant with standardization, metrology and quality. SASO performs the institutional and administrative tasks including the issuance of the Saudi standards as well as setting the procedures for conformity assessment and certification of goods, products and services. SASO also hosts the Saudi Accreditation Committee (SAC) which is responsible for accreditation of laboratories and certification bodies. With the recent regulations, SAC has also become authorized for accreditation and acceptance of halal certification bodies.

The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) is the authority for monitoring the food, drugs, medical devices and cosmetics in the country. Halal slaughtering certificates are also requested for meat and poultry importation to the country. As the competent monitoring institution for food imports to the country, SFDA publishes the authorized exporting firms for each country on its official internet site. [2]

Saudi Halal Center (SHC), which carries out its activities under the SFDA, issues and recognizes halal certificates and provides information about accreditation status of the halal certificates. With the recent regulations, an independent structure for this certifying body has been envisaged and SFDA is responsible for required studies for realization of this requirement. Information about the firms that acquired halal certificates from SHC is available on the internet.[3]

Halal Events/Fairs

The 1^st Saudi Halal Expo is planned to be organized on 29 November – 1 December 2021 in Riyadh.

[1] https://www.export.gov/apex/article2?id=Saudi-Arabia-Labeling-Marking-Requirements and for the SFDA lists: https://old.sfda.gov.sa/ar/food/about/administration/mangement_food/Pages/EDOIFC-MeatAndImportingCountries.aspx?v=1&countryId=18

[2]https://www.sfda.gov.sa/en/food/about/administration/mangement_food/Pages/EDOIFC-MeatAndImportingCountries.aspx

[3] https://www.sfda.gov.sa/en/food/Documents/SDFA-HalaCertificate.pdf

ADDITIONAL INFO

Authorized Institutions	Schedule of Events	Legislation
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