By AJ Black
The Ministry of Entrepreneur (MED) has recently did the soft launching of Malaysia Halal Expo 2019 at MaGIC, Cyberjaya. The event attended by representatives from the participating agencies, celebrities and the media aimed to provide the background to the first of its kind expo in Malaysia. The Malaysia Halal Expo 2019 (MHE 2019) will be held from the 24th of January till 26th January at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC).
While Halal business is not a new thing, its trajectory has been adjusted on many levels in the past years. The potential of halal product market, is vast, and it is not restricted only to food. The road to Japan or towards Olympic 2020 in Japan from the MED perspective in terms of halal products is very ambitious, yet not impossible. Malaysia, as strategic economic partner to Japan, has been invited to participate and to collaborate in this niche category, in anticipation of the global Olympic event in Tokyo and in the Tokyo Paralympic event. The Ministry, who have signed the MoC with Japan last November is working towards a kind of full spectrum of halal product and services for this upcoming Olympic.
So, the MHE 2019 is about making the preparation towards this journey. In this coming event, there will be exhibition from 300 over entrepreneurs to promote halal product and services that are export-ready. The companies are inclusive of those who have already obtained Halal certification and achieved at least 3-star rating from SME Corp under SME Competitiveness Rating for Enhancement (SCORE). The business matching session will include 20 potential leading buyers from Japan, namely from Family Mart, OHGA Pharmacy and Eagle Eye Japan.
The exhibition will be divided into 6 segments, namely food and beverage (F&B), ingredients, biotechnology, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and healthcare and logistics.
During the MHE 2019, there will also be Islamic Innovation Challenge (II) Award, which is an annual event organised by SME Corp, SME Malaysia, Malaysia Innovation Agency, JAKIM, Platcom Ventures Sdn Bhd and Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC). There will also be knowledge sharing sessions with 5 pocket talks sessions, 3 forums and 2 knowledge sharing sessions by successful and leading personalities.
From the soft launch, we spotted Faizal bin Ismail or FBI and Kartini Arifin of Dbilique, a digital media social advertising platform and Farah Fauzana (Fafau). And I want to know how they fit in the whole MHE picture, well apart from the celebrity oomph and awesomeness. And FBI shared something that I didn’t expect from a celebrity; he is already a halal certified entrepreneur from his frozen ready-to-eat food business. So, there I was gawking at his daging itam manis-daging dendeng lentok and ayam itam manis – picture laminated business card. Faizal will be one of the celebrity at MHE, sharing his business journey.
When many said it is hard to get a Halal certification, Faizal did his own bidding. From the trial and error to perfection of recipe, to getting the correct method to do frozen food and tried his own marketing. This is also made possible from the support and assistance from the agencies, and in the end, he gets his halal certificate from JAKIM for his business. He’s aiming to go global with his frozen food business, and one of the niche way to go is through halal food business.
When we discussed about halal, the Minister shared that we shouldn’t focused on just nasi lemak, but to the entire process of halal, which means from the product preparation up to the halal compliant storage and logistics. Malaysia, having one of the highest standard for Halal certification in the world, is not just because of the produce, but also the processes. Thus, it is not a surprise if Malaysia will become the hub to process halal product from international manufacturer and then to be exported. Through the MoC signed with Japan, both countries are committed to support each other in particular, the supply of halal food and services to Japan. Japanese market for halal food and services is estimated at to the amount of USD740million or RM3.06 billion.
The Ministry is hoping that MHE 2019, will become the platform to the upcoming Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic. This will be a good chance for entrepreneurs to showcase their product and at the same time to learn from the sophisticated processing technology from our Japan counterpart. Together, it will become an ideal package and halal certified.
MHE is happening on the 24th Jan till 26th Jan 2019 at KLCC. Do check out the exhibitors’ booth and do join the knowledge sharing session which involves the SME Bank Berhad, JAKIM, EXIM Bank, Matrade, Federation of Malaysia Freight Forwarders and many more.
See you there!