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Brunei Halal food enters Japanese market
Brunei-made Halal Japanese food products is making its way to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games following the opening ceremony of BMC Food Industries Sdn Bhd yesterday.
Minister of Primary Resources and Tourism Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Ali bin Haji Apong was the guest of honour at the event at Radisson Hotel.
Managing Director of TGT Group of Companies Tan Too Liang and Factory Manager Tan Too Yeo joined the minister to cut the ribbon.
BMC Food Industries which is under TGT Group of Companies collaborated with four Japanese companies to come up with three Chibo products, eight Kanda products, five Ginrei products and one Harry’s product.
The collaboration came from years of discussion, product-testing between the Japanese companies and BMC with the continuous efforts of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) which played a pivotal role in bringing the parties together.
Advisor to the President for Brunei Affairs of ERIA Okuochi Hiroshi said, “We, ERIA, has been supporting Brunei Halal since 2014. The first research report about Brunei Halal was issued in August 2016, saying how Brunei Halal is a premium certification for Halal in the world – based on a report on The Study on Halal Industry Investment in Brunei Darussalam carried out by ERIA in 2016.”
He added, “Currently, there is still not much Brunei Halal food in the Japanese market, so we hope we can develop a bigger market in Japan soon. Recently, Japan has more interests in Halal food for visitors from Muslim countries.”
He said, “Brunei Halal Japanese food went through many trial and errors. I hope these food will be a great first step to get Brunei Halal food into the Japanese market and other countries.”
The BMC Food Industries factory in Mentiri can produce up to 40,000 products per month. The first shipment to Japan is expected to be out soon. The factory started its operation at the end of last year.
The products available in the local market are Chibo’s Okonomiyaki in chicken, seafood and vegetable flavours. Chibo is one of the most popular Okonomiyaki restaurant in Japan and it has branches in other countries. There are 69 outlets in Japan and eight outlets outside Japan. Two of the latest restaurants are in Malaysia and Jakarta. Mochi and Cheese flavours will be introduced soon.
The other products to be manufactured soon are Kanda products of Beef Curry, butter mutton curry, chicken doria, shrimp gratin, shrimp, mushrooms gratin, chicken cream stew, salmon cream stew, seafood cream stew.
Products from Ginrei are chicken katsuni, saba misoni, Japanese tuna and corn croquette, Japanese curry croquette, chicken meatballs in teriyaki sauce.
Harry’s product is sanuki udon with noodle soup.
Source: https://borneobulletin.com.bn/brunei-halal-food-enters-japanese-market-2/