Malaysia's F&B establishments show steady growth

PUTRAJAYA: There were 167,490 food and beverage establishments in 2015, representing an annual growth rate of 5.1% since 2010, census results by the Department of Statistics Malaysia showed.

The economic census of food and beverage services revealed that the gross output generated by the services in these establishments was RM66.4bil, representing an annual growth of 12.2% or a total of RM29.1bil since 2010.

In line with this, there was an 11.2% annual increase in value add, totaling RM28bil in 2015.

More people were employed in the sector with the number of persons engaged in food and beverage services growing 6.7% annually to 891,616 persons.

"This services recorded a total of 569,632 persons as paid full-time employees with percentage share of 63.9%, while working proprietors and unpaid family workers 254,364 persons (28.5%) and paid part-time employees 67,620 persons (7.6%)," the Department of Statistics revealed.

The total salaries and wages paid to those engaged in the sector in 2015 was RM9.7.bil compared to RM4.9bil in 2010 with an annual growth rate of 14.4%.

Women entrepreneurs also showed a growing participation in food and beverage services, with 56,346 women-owned establishments in 2015, comprising about a third of the total number of establishments. This represented an annual growth rate of 0.9%.