Malaysia's Perak SADC To Make UAE Its Middle East Hub

From Zarul Effendi Razali DUBAI, Feb 29 (Bernama) -- The Malaysia's Perak State Agricultural Development Corporation (SADC), which has a presence in Eastern Europe and Japan through its homegrown agro-based products, plans to establish the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as its hub in the Middle East. Its Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Rizal Abdul Rahman said this is in line with the corporation's strategy to ramp up its overseas operations and strengthen its foothold in the global market. "The local market is fragmented with too many small players. As a state agency we don't want to be seen "killing" the existing players in the local market. That's the main reason we want to promote ourselves in overseas markets. "In addition, our community always regards foreign products as better quality than local ones. Our strategy is that we go abroad, and then only we come back selling our products locally," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the Gulfood 2016 exhibition here. Ahmad Rizal said SADC sees a huge potential in the Middle East market especially for its oud tea and oud miswak, a traditional toothbrush made from a tree. The agency, which is still at an infancy stage in penetrating the Dubai market, is banking on the five-day exhibition to gauge the response to its products from individual visitors and businesses alike. "Our current production capacity is about two tonnes per month. We can increase our capacity as and when the demand increases. We believe that other than the UAE, Saudi Arabia will also be a potential market for our products. "The beauty about us is that we plant our own raw materials. For the oud plantation currently we have planted about 101 hectares of gaharu plants with an expansion plan for another 60.7 hectares. "We perceive competition as very healthy, and we believe we can create our niche market. We plant our own raw materials, and we have abundant land," he added. SADC is also collaborating with local residents in planting gaharu on their unutilised land in Malaysia's state of Perak under a social project, with the seedlings provided by the agency. This is part of the agency's strategy to increase the planted area while at the same time providing the local community job opportunites and supplementary income as contract farmers. SADC's agro-based products are marketed by its unit Perak Agro Marketing Sdn Bhd under the brand PEGRO, which was established in 2011. Starting with ready-to-drink Mango Cup, Perak Agro continues to expand its product line to include Pink Guava Juice, Frozen Shrimp and Tilapia Fillet, and Java and Oud Tea. Apart from manufacturing and marketing products under the PEGRO brand, Perak Agro also markets a drink made of traditional herbs as well as ginger and turmeric, namely SAJEN JAMU Earth Drink, a drink specially formulated by SAJEN (Inc) USA. On a possible listing on Bursa Malaysia (Malaysia's Stock Exchange) in the future, Ahmad Rizal said SADC would not consider such an exercise as it has its social responsibility to carry out. "We have been in existence for the past 40 years, which is better than some of the listed companies which haven't even reached 40 years of their life. "Listing is not the only end game in the corporate world. They say there are many ways to skin a cat, and we believe in that too," he added. Based in Ipoh (Perak state capital), SADC engages in plantation activities such as oil palm plantation, plantation management services, oil palm mills, herbal plantation, pomelo cultivation, forest tree cultivation, aquaculture, ornamental and tropical fish industry, fishing resorts, integrated crop-livestock farming, goat milk-based products, and landscaping and nursery. Its main objectives are to encourage and improve the development of the agricultural industry in Perak and to boost the development of agro-related businesses. -- BERNAMA