BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Brunei is looking forward to deepening cooperation with China in the Halal food industry, Haji Mohammad Yasmin, Brunei's Minister of Energy and Industry at the Prime Minister's Office, said on Thursday.
"Brunei is looking at halal food as one of the strong foundations in the Brunei-China economic partnership," he told Xinhua.
The minister unveiled the three-day Brunei Halal Showcase on Wednesday to nurture local Halal business.
"This is leveraged on our Brunei Halal certification and through Ghanim International Corporation Sdn Bhd, a government-linked company for marketing and branding Halal food products at home and overseas," he said.
According to Yasmin, although Brunei is a small country with only 400,000 population, there is huge potential for Brunei Halal-certified products globally due to its strong certification and integrity.
"Brunei is currently ranked 12th amongst 73 countries according to Thomson Reuters report on Global Islamic Economy 2017, an improvement of five places from 17th position last year, with much of the contribution from the Halal food industry," he stated.
Statistics revealed by the minister shows that at the end of 2016, the overall revenue generated by local Halal industry was estimated at 88 million Brunei dollars (64.66 million U.S. dollars).
"Sales are now about 43.2 million Brunei dollars from January up to July 2017 from 24 different companies in the Brunei Halal food sector who have already reported their revenue to date," Yasmin told Xinhua.
As for upcoming projects and investment from China, the minister said there are several projects on food, such as a company operating offshore sea-caged farming and processing facility in Brunei and a company processing and trading of Brunei Halal certified spices.
"We look forward to exploring further collaboration with China in the Halal food industry," Yasmin said.
