HALAL STREET UK AIMS 500 LOCAL SMES TO EXPORT PRODUCTS INTO UK

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 (Bernama) -- Halal Street UK, the first halal e-marketplace in the United Kingdom (UK), is targeting to get 500 local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to be on its platform to promote and export their products in the UK. 

It's founder Simon Suresh said this is the first time the e-marketplace is venturing outside of the UK as Malaysia's halal-certified products are highly in demand. 

"In Malaysia, we are blessed to have the highest level of halal certification and able to enjoy the high quality of halal food regardless of whether Muslims or non-Muslims. 

"But sometimes, we take things for granted that when you are in the UK, you will find that it is quite difficult to buy halal products like sweets or even vitamins.

“Therefore, I think it is timely that the Malaysia SMEs make their way into the UK through this e-marketplace so that consumers can also enjoy the same quality of halal products,"  he told reporters at a media conference here, today. 

Simon said Halal Street UK is working with the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) through eTRADE Programme to assist more Malaysian SMEs to venture into the UK and surrounding markets. 

“This collaboration with Matrade will enable the SMEs to be entitled to receive eTRADE assistance such as the monetary facilitation when they take part in the Halal Street UK.

“Qualified SMEs will instantly have access to over 44 million Muslims in the European market, and over 15,000 existing subscribers on the platform. In the UK alone, the halal food market is worth 770 million British pounds,” said Simon who is also a lawyer residing in the UK.

Meanwhile, Matrade’s deputy chief executive officer Sharimahton Mat Saleh said the eTRADE marketplace is now totalled 20 with the participation of Halal Street UK.

Prospects of halal products such as food & beverages, beauty products, health supplements, hijab and baby products according to her, are immense in Europe due to the high and growing Muslim population there.

“By increasing the pool of exporters, we will be able to increase the export contribution of SMEs to 25 per cent by 2025 from 17.5 per cent achieved in 2018 - as stipulated in the National Entrepreneurship Policy 2030. 

“Under the eTRADE Programme, we currently have over 2,200 SMEs on board and hope to achieve 2,900 of them by 2020,” said Sharimahton adding that Matrade has been championing SMEs in e-commerce for over five years since eTRADE’s inception.

The Halal Street UK was established in 2014 and is based in both the UK and Malaysia.

The e-marketplace is currently running a series of training for interested SMEs to get on-board its marketplace (www.halalstreet.co.uk) through the eTRADE Programme which highlights the potential markets in the UK and European Union (EU), logistics and couriers and EU regulations. 

For more details, email to etrade@matrade.gov.my or visit www.matrade.gov.my/en/etrade. 

-- BERNAMA