Agrobazaar to continue assisting SMEs selling products in Singapore
SINGAPORE: Agrobazaar Malaysia in Singapore will continue its role in actively promoting agrobased food products from Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) for the next successful year.
Agrobazaar, the first permanent platform for Malaysia's fruits and agro- based products overseas, marked a successful second year last August.
“We are not only looking at increasing our revenue yearly.
"Assisting our SMEs to be here is the most important thing,” Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority Deputy Director General ( Operational), Datuk Sharifah Hashim, told Bernama in conjunction with its second anniversary.
Agrobazaar is a platform to bring more produce direct from Malaysian farms to ensure that farmers and SMEs benefit from market expansion especially into the international market.
According to Sharifah, the value of processed products purchased from 94 entrepreneurs now stands at RM485,148.91, with the value of 84 kinds of fresh products purchased from 95 farmers at RM579,351.25.
FAMA is targeting 500 stock keeping units (SKUs) by year-end for processed products from the current 358.
In terms of overall sales value, Sharifah said FAMA is targeting S$1 million (S$1=RM3) this year by strengthening the commercial focus of local products.
For the first six months of this year, a total of S$280,346.00 has been achieved.
Last year, sales revenue reached S$692,435.52 compared to S$523,187.00 in 2014.
“We are confident of achieving the target as the demand for local fruits especially the durian is quite high in this country,” she said.
The Authority brings in more than 20 tonnes to Agrobazaar annually, she said.
Agrobazaar was officially launched by both Prime Ministers Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Lee Hsien Loong on Aug 27, 2014.
Singapore is the choice location for the Agrobazaar given that it is the primary market for Malaysian agro-food products.
Singapore has a fairly large affluent society with a high rate of labour participation.
It has a population of more than 5.0 million, with a large number of expatriates.
Singapore's visitor arrivals are also high at 12.5 million a year.
As it is located close to Malaysia, the whole population of Singapore is the target market.
Malaysia exports nearly 20 per cent of its agro- food products estimated at US$ 1.5 billion ( US$ 1= RM4.1) annually to Singapore last year.
This market takes up almost 51 per cent of Malaysia's vegetable exports, 43 per cent of fresh fruits, 9.0 per cent of aquaculture products, 16.0 per cent of livestock and 5.0 per cent of agro-based food products from SMEs.
This project, undertaken by Malaysia's Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry, aims to provide a more permanent platform to promote and share Malaysian fruits and agro-food products amongst Singaporeans and their visitors. — Bernama