Nafas wants to expand business network in UAE

By Salawaty Supardi

DUBAI, Feb 24  -- The National Farmers Organisation (NAFAS) wants to expand its agriculture-based business network to United Arab Emirates (UAE) by participating in the Sustainable Agriculture Week at 2020 Dubai Expo here which started on Monday.

Its general manager, Abu Sujak Sahuji said, in addition, the main mission of NAFAS together with the Farmers Organisation Authority (FOA), was to explore opportunities in the halal industry in Dubai.

 He said that, towards this end, NAFAS brought along 24 types of products under the brand Peladang to be exhibited including those based on chicken, honey, pre-mixed coffee, snack such as ‘tabaloi’ and cooking oil.

“The target of NAFAS, which has almost one million members nationwide, is to become the first company from Malaysia and from an Islamic country, exporting halal livestock products under the Peladang brand which has the quality and recognition at the international level,” he told Bernama here today. 

He said that Malaysia had charted a halal industry landscape with its own concept and turned it into a new source to generate economic growth to the point it was able to penetrate the international market.

He said it is further boosted when the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) together with the National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs obtained the ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation in October last year which met the international standard thus making Malaysian halal standard recognised by the world.

According to Sujak, NAFAS could also play a role as export management agent for farmers’ produce in Malaysia and subsequently reduce the involvement of middlemen to ensure more competitive product prices.

He said NAFAS, which was established in 1972, has the capability because it has subsidiaries to produce and market breeder day-old chicks to chicken farmers.

In addition, he said Nafas Food and Processing Sdn Bhd, Medan Juara Sdn Bhd and Nafas Feedmills complemented one another in ensuring the smooth operation of the livestock industry.

“NAFAS hopes the 2020 Dubai Expo will benefit entrepreneurs and also agriculture-related associations and become a platform to reactivate the global economy,” he said.

The Sustainable Agriculture Week at the Malaysian Pavilion is hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries with the Malaysian Bioeconomy Development Corporation as the implementing agent would be on until tomorrow (Feb 25). 

-- BERNAMA