Malaysian Fruits Have Potential To Penetrate Romanian Market

From Muammar Kamarudin BUCHAREST, Oct 4 (Bernama) -- Malaysian fruits have potential to penetrate the tropical fruits market of Romania by using the right strategies, said Malaysian Ambassador to Romania Tajul Aman Mohammad. He was confident that the efforts by the Malaysian Agriculture Representative Office (PPP) from the Hague, the Netherlands in venturing into new markets such as in Romania, could possibly be fruitful as there was already a market for tropical fruits in this country. Tajul Aman told Bernama this when met during a programme to promote exotic Malaysian fruits at the Carrefour Hypermall in Baneasa here, Sunday. However, he said the PPP and the exporters needed to be conscientious in choosing the right fruits as they need to compete with other tropical fruits, such as pineapple from South American countries. "Look at the suitable fruits. It looks like, jackfruit, starfruit and dragon fruit gained the most interest(among Carrefour customers)," he said. The two-day programme which kicked of Saturday among others exhibited local Malaysian fruits such as pineapple, jackfruit, dragon fruit, passion fruit, rambutan, mangosteen, besides products such as pineapple chips, jackfruit chips and coconut chunks. Three companies joined the exhibition namely DRS Trading Sdn Bhd, Ganda Kota Ganda Sdn Bhd and Cemara Food Industries Sdn Bhd. Tajul Aman said Malaysia had the advantage to export tropical fruits to Romania as the distance between both countries was shorter as compared to the South American countries. Asked on business opportunities in Romania, he said not many Malaysians knew this country well other than two things, their former national gymnast, Nadia Comaneci and Dracula. However, he said the former socialist country, which was now part of the European Union (EU) had potential to expand, among others in the facilities sector. He said there were not many expressways developed in the country and the existing highways like in Bucharest, on average were narrow, thus Malaysian companies which had specialty in highway development could possibly have their business opportunities, here. Besides that, the workforce and operation cost in Romania were still on the low side if compared with other EU countries, he said. Tajul Aman said Romania also possessed a lot of experts in communications and information technology. At the same time, he said Malaysia had also attracted the interest of Romanians who love beaches and oceans. Last year, a total of 8,500 Romanian tourists visited Malaysia and he noted that Tourism Malaysia had also begun to approach tourism agencies here to attract more tourists from the country. Among the factors that led them to visit Malaysia was thei exchange of their currency the Lei was almost comparable to the Malaysian Ringgit.(One Euro equivalent to 4.43 Lei and about RM4.46). (US$1 = RM4.12) He said the increase in the number of tourists could be done possibly if there were direct flights from Bucharest to Kuala Lumpur, as for now, the tourists from here had to transit in Dubai, United Arabs Emirates, or Doha, Qatar, before reaching Kuala Lumpur. Tajul Aman said the bilateral trade between both countries for 2015 was US$44.63 million (RM184 million), with more trade siding Malaysia. Among the Malaysian exports to Romania were electric and electronic items, machinery and palm oil, while Romanian exports to Malaysia were chemical substances, fertilizer, machinery and electric and electronic items. -- BERNAMA