GHANIM International Food Corporation Sdn Bhd, which manages and markets “Brunei Halal Brand” is in negotiations to buy shares in one ofthe largest distribution networks based in United Kingdom and Europe.
The acquisition will enhance Ghanim’s key strategy to market “Brunei Halal Brand” in Europe. “Brunei Halal Brand”, owned by the Brunei government, is a commercial brand like BRC, HACCP and ISO but with a difference. It is a brand that complies with the religion taking advantage of Brunei’s reputation as a country that adheres strongly to Islamic values.

“However, successful products do not mean meeting certification requirement and obtaining Brunei Halal only. Success cannot be achieved overnight, it doesn’t mean that Brunei starts to exports and suddenly Brunei has the world to feed.”

Noel Shield, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Ghanim, said during a “Brunei Halal Brand” workshop yesterday.

He added that it takes resilience, market research, pricing strategy and marketing efforts to make one’s presence known.

“Twenty-five million Muslims in high-disposable income European markets represent huge export potential for Brunei-made Halal products,” said Mr Marc Deschamps, a Belgium Islamic Finance Expert.

But unfortunately the challenge, according to Mr Shield during the workshop yesterday, is bringing local products up to standards, not in a sense of how Halal the products are but how competitive they will be.

Part of the major problem is that most of the local products are not competitive enough to even venture into a global Halal market, said Noel Shield, who revealed the segmented taste of European market as one of the many challenges local products need to be aware of. For example, consumers’ specific tastes in cities of Leeds, Manchester and Leicester in the UK are very much different from each other.

“I have been asked by many here why we have not helped local food producers much,” he said.

“Unless there are some changes in the way they operate, unless there are sie changes in the logistic system covering the export market, unless there are some changes in the cost of production, local products can forget about foreign market,” he said while speaking during the workshop at the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources yesterday.

Ghanim manages, markets and promotes the “Brunei Halal” trademark owned by Brunei Wafirah Holdings, a fully owned company of MIPR.

He said the “Brunei Halal Brand” is the best in the world as it has tediously stricter Halal requirements compared to other certifications in the world.

Pricing strategy, market research and marketing plan on top of religious certification (Brunei Halal Brand) are some of the issues that local food producers need to take seriously to make use of the Brunei Halal Brand to export their products.

According to him, competitiveness also means adapting to the tastes of the importing countries and localities. This means having different taste protocols.

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