PUTRAJAYA: A high number of bumiputra companies do not have halal certification which deters their participation in the halal industry, says Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd managing director Datuk Ameer Ali Mydin (pic).
He has called for several improvements for the companies to help them acquire the certification.
He said out of the 9,162 halal-certified companies for 2023, only 38.7% or 3,562 are bumiputra-owned. Of the total, 6,857 are microenterprises, 1,155 are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and 1,150 are multinational companies.
He said among the main barriers for bumiputra small business owners to obtain halal certification were their operations being carried out on premises that do not meet halal certificate requirements, such as at the back of their houses.
As a solution, he proposed the creation of a tier system and a green lane to help more bumiputra companies obtain halal certificates such as crowd financing or waqaf, to assist bumiputra companies.
Ameer Ali said bumiputra companies are also confronted with challenges in terms of their exporting abilities.
“Out of Malaysia’s total exports worth RM1.4 trillion, RM53bil are halal products. But out of this, only RM2.9bil or 6% are from bumiputra companies. That’s a very small percentage. To help bumiputra companies, we need two policy decisions from the government,” he said during a session at the Bumiputra Economic Congress 2024 here.
Ameer Ali said that there must be a policy mandating every official government programme and gift baskets to comprise 70% halal bumiputra products.
“Secondly, there is a current policy whereby at least 30% of the total Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) displayed on the shelf space is allocated for bumiputra goods or products.
This is currently in place for foreign supermarkets only, but it must also be expanded to include local supermarkets, hypermarkets and convenience stores as well,” he said.