The Importance of the Halal Supply Chain During Covid-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between halal supply chain awareness toward attitude and purchase intention. A questionnaire was designed to collect data from Islamic undergraduate students in Salatiga and Surakarta. Partial Least Square (PLS) software was used to test the proposed research model. This research becomes the first research on how specific halal supply chain awareness affects the consumer during pandemic Covid-19. The result shows that halal feed and halal slaughtering have a positive effect on attitude. Proper separation and attitude significantly influence purchase intention, meanwhile, the halal feed and halal slaughtering awareness insignificantly influence purchase intention.


Introduction
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted lives and created a global economic slowdown, Indonesia is one of them. With many people who have lost their jobs during the pandemic, online culinary businesses serve as an opportunity for some to start a new venture. Even though the food business during this pandemic is down, culinary businesses are becoming more creative by making frozen food products and other innovations and turning to online sales so that their business can survive. According to a survey conducted by Grab, during this pandemic, there were changes in consumer lifestyles in Indonesia (Annur, 2020). Consumers are becoming more frequently shopping online, prefer to consume healthy foods, eat snacks, online lunch orders increased and people are more willing to share. The rising trend of buying food online also affects the number of new entrepreneurs in the food sector that have sprung up in this pandemic era. Along with this, there are concerns from food buyers, especially Muslim consumers whether the products they buy are halal or haram (Wahyuni et al., 2021). Recently, halal concept is getting more interest worldwide. The increasing number of Muslims globally is followed by an increasing demand for halal food products. According to the International Halal Integrity Alliance (IHIA), the halal food market amounts to 16% of the total world food industry, less than the total Muslim population. As a result, the trend has attracted the attention of all countries to produce more halal food. Halal ‫الل(‬ ) is a word in the Al Quran meaning halal or permitted, that's the usual of meals designated withinside the Al Quran.
The growing call for halal meals withinside the international marketplace is accompanied by many Muslim groups who sense dubious and are now no longer assured that the meals offered in the marketplace are definitely halal (Alam & Sayuti, 2011). The same thing happened in the Muslim community in Indonesia. The present Muslim shoppers are more delicate and mindful of the "Halal" necessities. Currently, consumers are not only demanding to have halal products but also have gone through a halal process (Bonne & Verbeke, 2008). Consumers are looking for a brand that has a halal label on its products. In addition, if consumers cannot find the "Halal" label, they will look for product ingredients that they can verify the "Halal" of the product (Afendi & Lina, 2014). Most Muslims think that they eat halal food as long as it doesn't come from foods Jurnal Manajemen Universitas Bung Hatta Vol.17, No.02, 2022ISSN : 1907 ISSN : 2615-5370 (online) Management Department, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Bung Hatta that are considered haram in the Al Quran. With the increasing number of food entrepreneurs who believe that what they sell is halal food, in reality, it is not necessarily halal. It can disturb potential consumers, especially Muslims. The risk of not knowing the halalness of food can occur in all food supply chain activities. During the Covid-19 pandemic, food buying and selling activities are carried out online and the absence of halal labels on all shops selling food will make it difficult for consumers. supply chains during this pandemic are unchanging. The shortening of the supply chain can demonstrate the change flows due to the use of online buying and selling systems, restrictions on mass public activities, and increasing consumer demand for fast and durable food. (Wahyuni et al., 2021).
Products can be said to be halal after passing through a halal supply chain (Yusoff et al., 2015). Omar & Jaafar (2011) stated that the concept of a halal supply chain is confusing for consumers and industry players. They assume that if the halal supply chain is really implemented it will incur additional costs and can be a problem for the company. The halal supply chain is to make sure that the halal reputation of the goods purchased by the public remains intact so that customer satisfaction can also be created. This is done because consumers' awareness about the halal supply chain is still low so that it can affect their attitude in making purchases (Bahrudin et al., 2011).
The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Theory of Reasoned Behavior (TRA) serve as the theoretical basis for this research framework. Halal supply chain awareness and attitudes are proposed as things that affect consumers' purchase intentions (Alam & Sayuti, 2011;Garg & Joshi, 2018). In a study conducted by Hashim & Othman (2011) religion has been identified as a major force to influences individuals' buying behavior and food choices. According to Tuu & Olsen (2012), product awareness affects consumer buying interest, especially for new products. Therefore, it can be assumed that supply chain awareness of halal products, i.e. what products and how they are produced, transported, and stored, will influence consumers' intention to buy. Alam & Sayuti (2011) found that young consumers in Malaysia positively affect their interest in buying halal food, so understanding and awareness about it is needed.
This study is an initial attempt to examine consumers' awareness about halal supply chain dimension and their attitudes on purchase intention. By looking at this, it will be known to what extent halal food supply chain awareness and consumer attitudes are very important for marketers and decision-makers. This is supported by Bashir (2019) who found that awareness is a key factor that influences interest in buying halal products in South Africa.
This research will focus on Muslim undergraduate students in Salatiga and Surakarta. Results of research from Nurohman & Qurniawati (2020) state that students will buy food that they believe is halal because they are obedient and committed to Islam. Meanwhile, the results of research from Muslichah M. et al. (2019) state that students as individuals with higher education will ensure that the products they eat comply with halal requirements.
The sampling technique used was the nonprobability sampling technique. Salatiga and Surakarta were chosen because there are several Islamic-based universities with a large number of students in these two cities. With the majority of the Muslim population, supply chain awareness and attitudes towards halal products are very important to know so that the public, especially students, do not become misperceptions.

Literature Review Halal Food Purchase Intention
Marketing research mostly still uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as the development of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Behavior can be interpreted as an action, attitude, or way a person does or has. In particular, many studies use TRA to predict consumer behavior in various contexts. Until recently, it was considered a relevant model, such as adopting Islamic banking and choosing halal products (Lada et al., 2009). For Muslims, the intention to buy a product is governed by religious beliefs and social norms. This is especially true when buying food products with the "halal" label. Based on the TPB theory, attitude is one of the factors that influence behavior, and the intention itself is determined by three constructs: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral Jurnal Manajemen Universitas Bung Hatta Vol.17, No.02, 2022ISSN : 1907 Nzama (2010) intention will allow consumers to buy a product or service.

Halal Supply Chain Awareness
A supply chain is a set of three or more entities (organizations or individuals) that are straightforwardly engaged with the upstream and downstream progressions of items, administrations, funds, and additionally data from a source to a clien (Mentzer et al., 2001). According to Yusoff et al. (2015), the purpose of the supply chain is to drive customer satisfaction and can maximize value so that the costs incurred are effective. The conventional supply chain begins with raw materials, inbound logistics, warehousing, production, storage, outbound logistics, sales, and customer service.
Meanwhile, the Halal supply chain can be defined as an integrated business process and activity starting from the point of origin to the point of consumption by consumers carried with Islamic law known as sharia (Omar & Jaafar, 2011). Conventional and halal supply chains are different things. Conventional supply chains focus on maximizing profits while meeting consumer demand. Consumers cannot guarantee that the Halal products they buy are truly Halal products when consumed without implementing Halal supply chain services. Even researchers such as Tieman et al. (2012) and Bahrudin et al. (2011) mention that it is very imported producers need to maintain throughout the supply chain as a fundamental effort to prevent consumer fraud related to the halal quality of a product. However, not all halal food producers consider this a serious problem. Halal supply chain awareness consists of halal animal feed, halal slaughter, and proper separation (Omar & Jaafar, 2011).
According to Islamic law contained in the Qur'an, animals to be slaughtered must be given good, clean, halal, and legally nutritious food so that halal meat can be produced. According to Omar & Jaafar (2011), we must be sure that the food given to animals to be slaughtered is halal. Based on the fatwa of the Indonesian Ulama Council or MUI (2009), there are animal standards that are said to be halal for slaughter, (1) animals slaughtered are animals that can be eaten (2) animals that are still alive when being slaughtered and (3) the condition of animals must meet animal health standards determined by the competent authority. In addition, the slaughterer's standard is that he must be Muslim and baliq, understand the syar'i slaughter procedure and have expertise in slaughtering. In slaughtering the tools used must also be sharp and come from teeth, bones, and nails.
The next factor of the halal supply chain is proper separation. Proper separation begins with the handling, packaging, transportation, and ends with the storage process. In order to avoid contamination between products, the method involved with taking care of, bundling, shipping, and putting away food should be isolated among halal and haram items. In this case, all aspects of quality, cleanliness and halalness must be strictly maintained to ensure that the products offered to Muslim consumers are truly halal. In addition, the handling of halal food must be clean and safe for consumption by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Handling materials such as forklifts and trucks may not be used to transport halal foodstuffs after previously being used to transport haram goods (Omar & Jaafar, 2011).

Attitude
The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) states that people's attitudes and beliefs about a phenomenon have a direct positive influence on a person's intention to act. A person's attitude or belief can cause a person to behave (Ajzen, 1991). TPB gives an orderly system to examining the elements that impact an individual to make a move (influencing an individual's way of behaving) and this theory has been broadly applied in different fields of social science (Tonglet et al., 2004). A person's attitude towards something can be predicted accurately from awareness of beliefs related to it (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1970). Attitude is not a behavior but an attitude that can lead to a preparation for action that leads to behavior Attitude is a positive or negative assessment framework, which is a propensity to support or reject. An uplifting outlook will be framed when the improvement that comes to somebody gives a lovely encounter. Then again, a negative disposition will emerge, assuming the improvement that comes gives an unsavoury encounter. Vol.17, No.02, 2022ISSN : 1907

Hypothesis Development
This study adopts the halal supply chain awareness dimensions from the research framework conducted by Omar & Jaafar (2011) and Yusoff et al. (2015). Animal feed is one of the important factors in the halal supply chain. Simanjuntak & Dewantara (2014) suggest that consumer awareness will affect their attitude towards a product. Muslims believe that "Halal" food is hygienic and delicious and that the best veterinary care should be exercised in preparing them (Ireland & Rajabzadeh, 2011). When consumers know that animal feed from the animals they will eat can determine whether the food is halal or not, it will affect their attitude H1: Halal animal feed awareness has a positive effect on attitudes Saidin et al. (2017) states that a Muslim must pay attention to several factors when choosing halal animal food products. Apart from where the animal comes from and the process of slaughtering it, consumers also need to know how the animal is raised and fed. This is due to the emergence of problems related to animal feeding. The meat that we will eat does not come from animals that eat feces because it is forbidden in Islam. (Bonne & Verbeke, 2008). Thus, if Muslim consumers are detailed and strict with animal feed requirements that already meet sharia criteria, they will choose halal products. H2: Halal animal feed awareness has a positive effect on halal food purchase intention In its social attributes, halal offers a way to guarantee protected and clean food. It likewise affirms that any planning of unrefined components, for example, the act of butchering for meat utilization in Islam's ways (Alhazmi, 2013). Conventional halal standards only focus on slaughter and production (Tieman et al., 2012). The amount of information about halal slaughter makes most Muslims know how to slaughter animals by the Shari'a. H3: halal slaughtering Awareness has a positive effect on attitudes Usually, customers buy food or final products such as chicken in the market without knowing the slaughter process. It is also unknown how the chicken was slaughtered and who slaughtered it. Regular inspections and law enforcement by the Majelis Ulama Indonesia are necessary to ensure that the slaughtering process at the abattoir follows Sharia law. According to Qaradawi in Yusoff et al. (2015), the slaughterer must be a Muslim, use a sharp knife in slaughtering, and pronounce tasmiyah ('In the name of Allah'). It is said that consumers who know about halal slaughter will be more likely to buy halal food products. H4: Halal slaughtering awareness has a positive effect on halal food purchase intention Alhazmi (2013) expressed worries about whether the food put in the market is halal and fundamental for Muslim shoppers. A large number of its creation might have added substances and fixings that can debase the halal idea of the food. In this way, Muslims should guarantee that all pieces of their food are halal, beginning from the assembling and bundling stages, going on through the showcasing stage, and any remaining parts of the food arrangement. From the producer's side, there is also a willingness to adopt halal practices to illustrate how having awareness or awareness about halal handling and storage motivates them to adopt these practices (Ngah et al., 2014). H5: Proper separation awareness has a positive effect on attitudes Proper separation can be delegated by dealing with, bundling, transportation, and capacity. The grouping partition of food merchandise should be isolated among halal and haram items, so there is no pollution between items. All parts of this partition should be dealt with to guarantee halal items are proposed to Muslim purchasers (Omar & Jaafar, 2011). The butchers and meat vendors should isolate the area, spot and butcher, handling gear, capacity, bundling, and dispersion from haram items (Tieman et al., 2012). Food producers should guarantee that no hardware and apparatus are related with haram (not allowed) or najis (ceremonially messy) fixings (Che Man and Sazili, 2010). H6: Proper separation awareness has a positive effect on halal food purchase intention The goal to purchase halal items goes before the cycle before the genuine buy and reflects future way of behaving. Attitudes are postulated to directly relate to behavioral intentions (Alam & Sayuti, 2011 Ajzen (1991), which states that attitudes can be described as an essential element in predicting and describing human behavior. On the off chance that one has a good attitiude toward the way of behaving and when one is positive about playing out the way of behaving, this will ultimately prompt a more grounded buy expectation. Along these lines, perspectives toward halal food are viewed as a significant piece of anticipating and making sense of the expectation of halal food purchasers H7: Attitude has a positive effect on the intention to purchase halal food

Methods
The research design used in this study is quantitative because the hypotheses in the study will be tested quantitatively or statistically and are intended to generalize research results (Neuman, 2006). The population used in this research is all Muslim undergraduate students in Salatiga and Surakarta. The sampling method is nonprobability sampling with a purposive technique. Since the number of this student population is unknown, one way to determine the sample size is to use a representative sample according to Hair et al. (2014) is 150 respondents.

Research instrument
The questionnaire used as the research instrument used a five-point Likert scale. An operational definition is a definition given to a variable or develop by giving importance, determining exercises, or giving an operationalization expected to gauge specific builds or factors.. The operational definition of this research is

Awareness
ii. The knife used is sharp iii. The slaughterhouse must be clean iv. Animals are treated in a decent way to guarantee they are not focused or invigorated before butcher v. Saying the name of Allah when going to slaughter (Yusoff et al., 2015) Proper Segregation Awareness i. Halal food handling materials must be clean and safe ii. There is a halal symbol on the packaging iii. Raw materials for packaging are made of halal materials iv. Transportation to bring halal food should not be mixed with haramfood v. The separation between halal and haramgoods while in the warehouse (Yusoff et al., 2015) The data analysis technique used in this research is quantitative analysis. Quantitative analysis is the collection of quantitative research data using a series of research instruments in the form of tests/questionnaires. The quantitative approach emphasizes the results of the average variance. The quantitative approach is seen as exploratory and inductive. The research hypothesis using Partial Least Square (PLS) software. The Partial Least Square (PLS) method is an iterative estimation process involving the structure of the diversity of independent and dependent variables. A total of 150 questionnaires were distributed to Muslim undergraduate students in Salatiga and Surakarta, and all of the questionnaires were returned. The majority of respondents were aged 21 -22 years as many as 97 respondents. For gender, the highest number of respondents is female, with as many as 116 respondents.

Measurement Model
The first test is constructed validity, which looks at the outer loadings to evaluate if there are problems with any particular items. A loading factor value of 0.50 or more is considered to have sufficiently strong validation to explain latent constructs (Hair et al., 1998). According to Jurnal Manajemen Universitas Bung Hatta Vol.17, No.02, 2022ISSN : 1907 (2011), indicators with a loading factor value between 0.5 -0.6 are acceptable. From Table 3 it's clearly shown that all the items measuring value are above 0.6 thus confirming construct validity. The second test is convergent validity, Hair et al (2017) stated that the average variance extracted (AVE) and the loading must exceed 0,5 and the composite reliability (CR) must reach 0,7 as seen ini table 4. AVE and CR values surpass the recommended values (ranging from 0.580 to 0.721 for the AVE and 0.886 to 0.928 for CR). Thus it can be confirmed that the measurement model showed evident convergent validity.
The third test is reliability testing, measured by two criteria in this study: composite reliability and Cronbach's alpha, as seen in table 4. In general, a minimal Cronbach alpha coefficient with a result of 0.6 is considered a good indication of reliability. At the same time, the variable is said to be reliable if the composite reliability value is above 0.70 (Ghozali, 2005).

Structural Model
In evaluating the structural model, it is necessary to test the hypothesis using the Bootstrapping function in SmartPLS 3.0. The hypothesis is accepted when the significance level is less than 0.05 or the t-value exceeds the critical value (Hair et al., 2014). The t statistics value for the 5% significance level is 1.98. The result reveals that four hypotheses were supported (H1, H3, H6, and H7) and another three were not supported (H2, H4, and H5). Table 6 shows the present hypothesis testing of the study.   The first hypothesis is that halal animal feed awareness positively affects attitudes towards halal food is accepted. This can be interpreted that the better the awareness about halal animal feed, the better the attitude towards halal food. When viewed from the descriptive statistical results of halal animal feed variables, most students know that in raising animals that they will eat and are said to be halal, they must avoid feed and medicines made from haramingredients. This means that when undergraduate students know that Sharia elements keep the animals, their attitude when consuming the animals is positive.
The second hypothesis is that halal animal feed awareness has a significant positive effect on the purchase intention of halal food is rejected. This study indicates a lack of information about halal animal feed because the more exposed things when talking about halal food are more focused on slaughtering practices. This study is conducted by Yusoff et al. (2015) where awareness of halal animal feed is not an important predictor of consumer intentions to buy halal products.
The third hypothesis is that halal slaughtering awareness positively affects attitudes toward halal food is accepted. Muslims generally think that slaughtering animals should be done by Muslims. Muslim consumers will prefer to transact with Muslim meat sellers because they have the same moral and religious obligations to provide confidence that animals are slaughtered according to the Islamic way. This study is in line with the results found by Jalil et al. (2018) where The fourth hypothesis is rejected. In purchasing meat, except for meat already considered haram, consumers do not care whether the animal has gone through a slaughter process by Sharia elements. They assume that the meat they buy is halal meat regardless of the method of slaughter. Purchasers will quite often characterize halal as a strict necessity for Muslims and they additionally imagine that for however long there is no pork or liquor, it is viewed as halal (Kadir et al., 2016).
The fifth hypothesis that proper separation of awareness positively affects attitudes toward halal food is rejected. In Indonesia, business people who sell meat have separated between halal meat and haram meat. There is no halal label on the packaging of halal meat sold in the market. Buyers only believe that the meat they buy is not pork so their attitude will be calm when buying the product. These results are by research from Omar & Jaafar, (2011), which states that industry players are confused and misunderstand the term halal. They have not made a genuinely appropriate separation by Islamic rules.
The sixth hypothesis is that proper separation of awareness positively affects the intention to buy halal food is accepted. Business people who increasingly understand the halal food supply chain know that they need to separate halal and haramfood. The purchase intentions of Muslim consumers, predominantly undergraduate students, will not be affected if these foods are separated. The halal supply chain must ensure no contamination between halal and haram goods (Omar & Jaafar, 2011). If this has been done, consumers will no longer doubt the contamination of haram food in their products. Research from Tieman et al. (2012) states that Muslim consumers in Malaysia want the right level of separation for halal products. They are even willing to pay for halal products at a higher price if the product has gone through the correct halal food supply chain.
The last hypothesis is that attitudes toward halal food positively affect halal food purchase intention is accepted. Attitude is a significant variable in affecting customer intention in purchasing halal food items. Undergraduate students have a high inspirational perspective, so they plan to purchase halal food items. The consequences of this study are in accordance with research from (Alam & Sayuti, 2011;Maichum et al., 2017) which state that there is a positive relationship between attitudes and intentions to buy halal products.

Conclusions
The results of this study are useful for marketers and producers of halal food. Marketers must recognize the fact that they have to design halal food promotion programs that can influence consumer perceptions and beliefs. However, producers should also be aware that customers have awareness of the halal supply chain and will evaluate the product before making a purchase. So marketers should not only focus on product packaging that has a halal label but also maintain product quality by Sharia elements.
To encourage the purchase of halal food, government authorities and halal food manufacturing companies must strictly implement the halal supply chain because the majority of Indonesia's population is Muslim. The government must facilitate the management of halal labelling so that people can feel confident that the goods they buy are truly halal products.
The research was only conducted on students in Salatiga and Surakarta. Therefore, further research can be done by expanding the object of research and the demographics of the respondents so that the research becomes more comprehensive. In addition, this study only examines the influence between halal supply chain awareness, attitudes towards halal food, and intention to purchase halal food. Therefore, further research can use other variables by using Jurnal Manajemen Universitas Bung Hatta Vol.17, No.02, 2022ISSN : 1907