Australasia
Tap Aussie Halal food industry - MATRADE
By Business Times
Oct 28, 2006, 14:04

THE lucrative Australian halal food industry is something not to be missed if Malaysian food and beverage (F&B) players want a greater presence in the island continent.

According to the Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade), demand for Syariah-compliant food is on the rise as the Muslim community in Australia is growing more rapidly than the overall population there.

Despite being much larger, Australia's population of about 20.7 million people is, however, less than Malaysia's 26.8 million people.

"One of the growth areas is the Australian halal food sector," Matrade said in a statement yesterday.

The potential of Australia's halal food segment is also due to the fact that there are some 28,000 Muslim students and 31,000 Muslim travellers there at any one time, Matrade added.

Based on updates by the Australian High Commission in Malaysia, Australia's merchandise exports to Malaysia rose 3.4 per cent to RM6.75 billion in 2005 while its imports from Malaysia increased 9.5 per cent to RM16.5 billion.

Matrade said Australia's food imports had increased 10 per cent to A$6.5 billion (RM18.13 billion) between 2004 and 2005.

Processed food including meat, flour and cereal, besides confectionery constitute the bulk or 95 per cent of Australia's F&B import bill.

To further promote Malaysian F&B offerings in Australia, Matrade will be organising in Malaysia a seminar entitled "Packaging & Labelling Requirements for Food and Beverage Products for Australia and the International Market".

The first session starts on November 8 in Penang, followed by the second seminar the next day in Kuala Lumpur.


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