ABSTRACT
Logistics is part of the network that links the upstream and downstream of supply chain activities. Many parties are involved in these supply chain activities such as the supplier, the agents, the manufacturer, third-party providers, distributors, retailers, as well as customers. Recent developments in the field of Halal logistics show the prominence of maintaining the Halal status throughout the chain to safeguard the Halal product status. Halal logistics is an approach to avoid contamination of Halal food product, Halal meat, Halal perishable items and Halal raw material from non-Halal substances during transportation, distribution or at the warehouse, as well as at the retail. In this chapter, we contend that those developments need to be studied and developed further as the area of this research is still lacking especially in the context of Southeast Asia. Even though Halal studies are a popular field and have extensively being studied all over the world, from the lens of Halal logistics and supply chain, it is still a dearth. Scholars in this field indicate that the literature in this area is still lacking and inconclusive. Using Southeast Asia as a main focus to summarize the recent trends, this chapter incorporates a discussion on the Halal logistics and supply chain development in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam. These countries have been chosen in this study as there is a great potential to further develop Halal industry in these countries. Building on this, we provide a discussion from four perspectives, namely total Muslim population and Muslim travel activities in these five countries, the potential demand and movement of the Halal product, the Halal certification body and authority in these five nations, and lastly we identify the current and future establishment of Halal logistics service provider in these five countries.
