Gov’t says Mixue not yet halal certified. Imagine its dominance once it is

It seems nothing is standing in the way of Mixue’s Indonesian invasion, and we can only imagine its growth in the country once the Chinese ice cream and tea chain obtains halal certification.

Starting last year, in particular, Mixue stores and its Snow King mascot sprouted seemingly at every mall, shophouse, and even traditional markets (think Starbucks’ early unchecked rise). 

This week, the Ministry of Religious Affairs took note of Mixue’s aggressive expansion and preemptively warned the franchise not to claim its products are halal certified.

“At this point, Mixue does not yet have halal certification, so it is not yet allowed to put up the Halal Indonesia logo in its stores,” the ministry’s Halal Products Guarantee Body (BPJPH) head Aqil Irham said, referring to the symbol denoting that a product is fit for consumption by Muslims.

Aqil added that Mixue filed a halal certification request with the ministry in November 2022, and that the audit into the chain’s products is ongoing.

Yesterday, photos circulated showing a small group of people standing outside a Mixue store in Cikini, Central Jakarta calling for a boycott of the franchise over its lack of halal certification.

In July 2022, Mixue posted a statement on social media explaining that it has been in the process of obtaining halal certification in Indonesia since 2021. According to the company, the process has been hampered by bureaucratic hurdles, such as obtaining approval from Shanghai’s halal certification body, as well as COVID-19 lockdowns in China.

Mixue stressed that the chain’s products and its ingredients do not contain pork by-products or anything that’s forbidden for consumption by Muslims.

Mixue, which was launched in China in 1997, arrived in Indonesia in 2020. Thanks to its affordable soft serve ice cream, milk tea, and milkshakes, Mixue expanded aggressively in just two years, with more than 300 stores recorded nationwide as of March 2022. More recent data is not yet available, though the number is expected to be far higher now as Mixue stores popped up left, right, and center throughout 2022, in particular.