BIG SCOPE FOR MALAYSIA-FRANCE COOPERATION, TRADE IN HALAL FIELD

By Samantha Tan Chiew Ting

KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 (Bernama) -- The scope for cooperation and bilateral trade
between France and Malaysia, especially in the halal field, is big, says
Francois Matraire, commercial counsellor at the French embassy here.

"Both countries can grow the halal market and it is easy to tap the Muslim
market via France as we enjoy a long history of close relationships and
understanding with the Muslim world," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the
7th Malaysia International Halal Showcase 2010 (Mihas 2010) here Thursday.

He said Muslims in France accounted for nearly 10 per cent of the total
population, or six million people.

France is a home to the largest Muslim community in Europe and the largest halal
market, he said.

"With an estimated sales of €4 billion (€1=RM3.03) in 2009, the halal market is
one of the very few sectors in France which showed a steady average growth of 10
per cent annually," he said.

Matraire said Malaysia and France had some promising opportunities to set up
partnerships in halal-certified products.

He said France was keen to develop and deepen the relations with Malaysia.

"These efforts showed that the French companies are willing to be at the
forefront of the new Malaysian halal hub to reinforce our bilateral trade and
investments, and to foster our technical cooperation in the halal sector," he
said.

Today, he said, many French companies had entered into fruitful partnerships in
this field with Malaysian counterparts, with some of them already started
operation.

"One of them is Seafrigo's joint venture with MISC for halal cold storage
logistics in Port Klang, and some are well under way, like the venture of Glon
Group for animal husbandry in Malaysia," he said.

On Mihas 2010, Matraire said French companies had increased their
participation.

The companies are Carrefour, Labeyrie, Salmane, Port of Marseille Fos,
Chocolaterie Bruntz, Bayle and Oleon.
-- BERNAMA