Malaysia Invites Dubai Businessmen To Invest In To Malaysia's Agro-based

DUBAI, Feb 18 -- Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin invites Dubai businessmen to invest in Malaysia's potentially lucrative agriculture and agro-based sector.


Muhyiddin is leading a 10-day high-level trade and agro product mission to United Arab Emiratesand Saudi Arabia. He is accompanied by 200 Malaysian entrepreneurs from nearly 50 companies.

As Malaysia's biggest trading partner in West Asia for many years, he said UAE had the capacity to be Malaysia's biggest and most pertinent investor in the agriculture and agro-based industry.

After highlighting the myriad of incentives for investment offered by the Malaysian government, he invited Dubai businessmen to consider investing in areas such as fruit crops production and processing; aquaculture, livestock and "halal" food production.

Other areas that could yield lucrative returns include research and development in biotechnology, production of seeds and hatchery as well machineries and services.

"UAE businessmen have the financial strength and power to invest in potentially lucrative businesses with Malaysian partners... At our end, Malaysia is ready and raring to market our food and agro-based products to the consumers in this region," he said in his keynote address at the Investment Opportunites in Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Seminar here.

After Dubai, the group will move on to the Saudi port city of Jeddah.

Apart from seminars, other highlights of the trade mission are business matching sessions, market research activities and efforts to strengthen cooperation and networking with the importers, distributors and retailers of agricultural products in Dubai and the rest of the UAE.

The Malaysians will promote more than 200 food products which include fresh fruits, processed food, drinks, frozen products, herbs and confectionery. In earlier remarks, Muhyiddin said the mission was expected to reap in sales of RM1 billion.

Dubai has a market base for food product imports estimated to be worth US$40 billion (US$1=RM3.72) and it is one of the main distribution points for this region. The re-export market of Dubai caters to almost 1.7 billion people, which includes West Asian countries, the Indian sub-continent and Africa.

Already a major player in the halal food market, Malaysia, he said, intended to become the main exporter of halal products to West Asia, Central Asia and Africa in line with its aim of becoming the leader in the global halal food industry.

He explained that the halal food market was now worth an estimated US$150 billion a year and if the 1.8 billion global Muslim consumers were tapped into, the market had the potential to grow up to US$500 billion annually.

"It has an immense market potential. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world today, and yet in most parts of the world, there is a dearth in the availability and supply of good quality halal food," he said.

The minister said with the enlargement of the scope of the halal market to include non-food products such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, leather goods hotel and catering services, the global market value for halal food and non-food products was estimated at a staggering US$2.1 trillion a year.

Realising the importance of this sector to the Muslim community, he said, Malaysia planned to establish the International Halal Food Centre (IHFC) to spearhead the marketing and certification activities of halal products as well as serve as a reference centre.

He said the proposed IHFC would function as a one-stop centre and platform for activities such as legislation, inspection, certification, enforcement, research and development, testing and consumerim.

Turning to Malaysia-UAE trade figures for foodstuff, Muhyiddin said that the export value increased to RM152.12 million in 2004 from RM69.67 million in 2000.

"My ministry is in the midst of expanding our trade to the UAE in products such as dairy products, bird eggs, coffee, cocoa, tea and spices as well as fruits and vegetables," he said. These items contributed a hefty 58.77 percent to the total food export in 2004.

Malaysian entrepreneurs and food producers are also participating in the Gulfood Exhibition 2006 which will be an avenue to promote Malaysia as the halal food hub, showcase various types of Malaysian food, discover new technologies in agricultural and agro-based industry and conduct market research activities for potential investments.

"We are truly excited to showcase for the next 10 days a variety of sumptuous Malaysian food and delicacies such as meat-based products, fresh and tinned fruits, fresh, frozen and tinned vegetables, snacks and confectionaries as well as health food," he said.

Promotional activities for fresh tropical fruits and processed products will also be held in hypermarkets in Dubai.