Malaysian Brands Capture Substantial Portion Of India's Biscuit Market

By Manik Mehta MUMBAI, Feb 29 (Bernama) -- Malaysian brands have succeeded in capturing a substantial portion of India's biscuit market and the country is also the biggest foreign supplier of the product. This is in addition to Malaysia being the foremost supplier of frozen parathas (pan-fried Indian flatbread) to India. Mazlan Harun, Malaysia's Trade Commissioner in Mumbai said among the biscuit brands available in India are Julie's, Munchy's and Hup Seng. "This achievement is a reflection of the great potential, that exists for enhanced trade between Malaysia and India, whose economy is projected to grow between 7 and 7.5 per cent this year. "Malaysia's two-way trade with India in 2015 touched US$11.09 billion (RM46.82 billion), up 3.5 per cent from US$10.7 billion (RM45.23 billion) in 2014.(US$1=RM4.22) "India's projected strong economic growth this year augurs well for our trade and business as it will generate demand from the increasingly growing middle class," he told Bernama. Palm oil has been the mainstay of Malaysia's exports to India, thanks to continuing demand for the commodity. It took the lion's share in accounting for nearly 26 per cent of Malaysia's total exports to India. The second largest product category, after palm oil, was electronics and electrical (16.9 per cent), followed by crude petroleum (16.1 per cent). In 2015, exports from India to Malaysia rose 13.6 per cent to RM15.16 billion. Malaysia's exports to India stood at RM31.67 billion. The Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation's (Matrade) e-Commerce platform is one of the new initiatives to increase exports to India and the agency signed an e-trade agreement with tradeindia.com in January this year. "We want to promote our products through the platform of tradeindia.com," Mazlan said. Flipcart, an Indian e-commerce company, is also one of the biggest importers of Malaysian products. To give trade with India a push, there are plans for Malaysia's Minister for International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed, to visit the country in May. "We are working on his visit, but nothing has been confirmed as of now," Mazlan said. He also stated that his office had received a lot of enquiries from Malaysian construction companies who are very impressed by India's growth rates and the business-friendly attitude of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "I am bullish on India," Mazlan said. Matrade's Mumbai office has also been organising special events in India, while inviting Indian companies to participate in matchmaking programmes with their Malaysian counterparts. "We plan to organise an event in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, probably in the third quarter of this year. "Many Indian companies also participate in events in Malaysia and we will organise an international sourcing programme from March 28-31 for the halal-related exhibition, MIHAS. "About 25 Indian companies have already signed up for this programme. Malaysian exhibitors, in turn, are interested in India's furniture and rubber trade fairs (both held in Mumbai), food exhibitions (Mumbai and Delhi), medical equipment exhibition (Chennai)," Mazlan said. Indian companies which have carved a niche in the fashion sector, also participated in large numbers in the INTRADE fashion trade fair. INTRADE or International Trade Malaysia is an annual international exhibition organised by Matrade since 2007, which connects trade exhibitors, buyers and visitors to the global markets. -- BERNAMA