Global prospects for halal industry highly regarded by both the Korean government and business community
The Seoul Food & Hotel (SFH) is the largest international food and beverage exhibition in Korea and the fourth largest food industry exhibition in Asia, bringing together over 1,550 qualified exhibitors and 50,335 visitors from 40 countries annually.
Thus, the participation of Halal Development Corporation Berhad (HDC) at SFH 2021 at KINTEX in Seoul on July 27-31 will help boost Malaysia’s push to increase halal exports to South Korea.
“The global prospect of halal industry is highly regarded by both the government and business community in Korea as a new source of economic growth.
“HDC is certainly honoured to be leading this quick-win collaboration with Korea Trade-Investment Agency (KOTRA) and remains fully committed to contributing towards the development of a robust regional halal industry, as well as to strengthen the warm ties enjoyed between our two nations,” said CEO of HDC Hairol Ariffien Sahari.
This was HDC’s second participation in the event, which is being organised in collaboration with KOTRA to promote halal trade, investment and know-how between Malaysia and South Korea.
For HDC, SFH 2021 was an ideal opportunity to launch its new virtual product demo platform and continue to facilitate halal trade and investment through the Virtual Business-to-Business (B2B), building on the huge success the previous year.
DASH a viable virtual platform
The Halal Integrated Platform (HIP) establishment, a one-stop online platform that helps companies grow their businesses by connecting them to other industry stakeholders within the global halal ecosystem, is one of HDC’s main development plans for 2021.
HIP provides a Digital Augmented Showcase of Halal Malaysia, or DASH, an application that combines Augmented Reality capabilities with 3D-enabled presentations of Malaysian halal products and services to enable Malaysian halal exporters to showcase their products and services to potential global buyers.
DASH provided a viable virtual platform for sellers to creatively display and sell their products to potential buyers all over the world without the need for any physical presence.
“So far, 54 Malaysian halal exporters have had their products integrated into DASH, and their products will immediately gain more exposure, either through a hybrid or full physical participation in trade promotion events organised by HDC or any of our counterparts,” said Hairol.
“By prioritising digital participation through DASH (Augmented Reality), Virtual Reality, and Interactive Digital Screens, we hope that the current 250 products listed in this 3D-enabled platform can be accessed by various global businesses participating in major regional trade shows, such as this SFH 2021, for the Asia Pacific region or the upcoming World Expo 2020 Dubai.”
Halal product positioning
Another priority for HDC was to continue its Virtual B2B series. In this regard, HDC’s International Cooperation Department has already held two virtual B2B meetings for Malaysian companies.
The first session was with Korean buyers in conjunction with SFH 2020 on Oct 6-8, 2020. The second was with potential Chinese buyers in conjunction with the Food & Hospitality China (FHC) 2020: Shanghai Global Food Trade Show on Nov 24-26, 2020.
The previous two business meetings were held entirely online between Malaysian exporters listed in DASH and foreign buyers from various provinces in Korea and China, respectively.
These sessions have undoubtedly improved Malaysia’s halal product positioning, particularly in East
Asian markets with an estimated RM10 million in potential sales from these two sessions.
“During times of global pandemics, such as now, virtual B2B is quickly becoming the new preferred method for local halal producers to access foreign markets.
“This has not only helped us understand the expectations of global buyers as well as those of our local exporters, but it also demonstrates the competitiveness of their products in entering new markets while adhering to new business norms,” Hairol added.
He said the global prospect of the halal industry is highly regarded as a new source of economic growth. — The Health
