Fama wants more products from states marketed in Singapore

SINGAPORE: The Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) says it wants to see more Malaysian products marketed in the island republic.

“If your product can penetrate the Singapore or Australia markets, your products should also be able to penetrate the global market,” said Fama Corporation chief executive officer Zainal Abidin Yang Razalli.

These two countries set very high standards for foreign products to be accepted in their market, the former Johor Fama director told Bernama on the sidelines of the Malaysia Fest 2018 held here recently.

He said export figures from the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) show Singapore was Malaysia’s largest export market in 2017, surpassing China and the US.

Zainal Abidin said exports to Singapore are rising each year, with last year’s exports hitting RM136.358 billion, up 20.8 per cent over 2016.

Exports of processed products and fruits also showed an increase, with exports of processed products surging to RM2.610 billion in 2017 from RM2.277 billion in 2016 and exports of fruits rising to RM1.568 billion from RM1.340 billion.

“There is very good potential for us to further explore and improve our market share through ongoing and future programmes here,” said Zainal Abidin.

Fama has for the past 15 years been aggressively promoting local products through expositions like Malaysia Fest with the cooperation of strategic partners in the republic.

It has also succeeded in putting Malaysian products in supermarkets here including Malaysia Halal Centre at Big Box, Jurong and Mustaffa Centre, Cold Storage and U-Stars supermarkets.

Fama is also collaborating with Aladdinstreet.com.sg on online sales of some 150 Malaysian products.

The four-day Malaysia Fest 2018 held from Aug 9 at Expo, Changi attracted over 100,000 visitors, meeting the organiser’s objective.

The Fama Pavilion featured 28 Malaysian entrepreneurs including from Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Terengganu, Johor, Melaka, Kedah, Pahang, Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

The event, the third to be hosted by Fama’s strategic partner MegaXpress International Pte Ltd, featured 250 booths offering Malaysia’s best food, fashion, beauty, travel and cultural products, recording sales of about RM7 million, up from RM6.4 million last year. — Bernama