Halal food industry to use Tokyo Olympics as springboard

KUALA LUMPUR: The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be used as a springboard for 300,000 Malaysia Agro Entrepreneurs Association (MAEA) members to penetrate the Japanese halal market, which is set to grow after the sports festival.

MAEA president Datuk Seri G. Gnanaraja said the demand for halal food would be high during and after the Olympic Games because of the influx of Muslim tourists.

He said the Malaysia Halal Food Expo (MHE 2019), which ended on Saturday, gave an opportunity to MAEA members to gather information and knowledge from other entrepreneurs in their bid to penetrate the Japanese halal market

MAEA had through the expo, themed “Malaysia to Japan for 2020 Olympics”, stepped up its effort to ensure that all entrepreneurs did not miss out on the opportunity to trade in the Land of the Rising Sun.

The 2020 Olympic Games in Japan targets the entry of 40 million tourists, including Muslims.

“I will make sure MAEA will not miss out on the golden opportunity to penetrate the halal market there and this expo is the beginning of that.

“And it can widen our entrepreneurs’ network, especially in the international market,” he told Bernama after visiting the expo at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

He added that MHE 2019 was the result of the continuation of the Malaysia-Japan memorandum of co-operation related to halal food signed on Nov 26.