Marketing Opportunities for the Malaysia Halal Food Industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region

Abstract

The MENA region is one of the most rapidly expanding food and beverage marketing platforms in the world. Malaysia as an international halal hub sees the MENA region as an important target for the export market of halal food products. Various efforts have been outlined and implemented towards accelerating the export activity to that region. Hence, this research was conducted to analyse the food ecosystem in the MENA region and the landscape of the halal food market there in detail and comprehensively. This research is a qualitative research which uses the literature review method entirely for the collection and analysis of data. The findings of the research are that the food products which are the main imports for the population in the MENA region are cereal, dairy products, meat, fruit and nuts, food preparation products, vegetables, vegetable fat and animal fat based products, coffee products, tea and spices, cereal and pastry preparation products, as well as sugar and honey products. The findings of this research are useful as it is a reference for the decision makers in the halal food industry in Malaysia who intend to market food products in the MENA region.