JOHOR BAHRU: The state aims to rope in more halal and health certified entrepreneurs under the 1Malaysia Best brand to increase its product revenue to RM70mil next year.

Johor Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) director Faridulatrash Md Mokri said products from businesses that received the 1Malaysia Best label was guaranteed to be clean and safe to consume.

He said currently there are 29 of such companies in Johor compared from the 20 businesses in 2012 and the companies must be halal and health certified in order to be eligible to operate under the brand.

“We hope to attract at least another 20 businesses under the brand so that their businesses can expand and export their products to the overseas market,” he told a press conference here.

He added that the entrepreneurs under the brand export items like frozen foods and processed birds nest drink export to countries like Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, China and the Middle East.

“Naturally, Singapore is the biggest importers of the 1Malaysia Best products.

“We have done market research, which showed that about 65% of the frozen food products sold at hypermarkets in Singapore were from Malaysia so there is a huge potential there,” he said.

He said that Johor Baru had the most number of businesses with 17 companies receiving the label followed by Batu Pahat with six businesses, Muar with two and Kluang, Segamat, Pontian, Kota Tinggi with one each.

Besides that, Faridulatrash also said that the 29 companies have attracted a sale of RM57mil so far this year, which was an increase of the RM54mil in the year before.

Faridulatrash added that in conjunction with its efforts to attract more businesses to be certified, a 1Malaysia Best Carnival would be held from Nov 27 to Dec 1 in Kluang to promote the benefits and to educate entrepreneurs about the brand.

*This article was published by The Star Online. Read the original article here.