PFP plans halal food production in Malaysia

“We chose Malaysia as it has strong credibility in the production of halal foods, being recognised by other Muslim countries, rather than Thailand or other non-Muslim countries,” executive director Thawatchai Ratanapisit said yesterday.
The company is negotiating with a potential partner in Malaysia to set up manufacturing and distribution facilities for halal products in the country. In Thailand, PFP operates two food-processing plants in the southern province of Songkhla. One is for fish tofu, fish tofu slide, chikuwa fish cakes, fish and shrimp chips. Its capacity is 16 tonnes per day.
The other plant is for many products including imitation crab sticks, snow crab, fish tofu, Thai fish cakes, imitation crab claw, and imitation shrimp. Its capacity is 81 tonnes per day.
The group will also gear up for more exports, with the aim of 10-per-cent growth annually. The main markets abroad will be China and Muslim countries, especially Central East and Indonesia.
Chairman Thawee Piyapatana said global demand for seafood was still increasing, based on consumer preference for healthy foods.
PFP products are in line with the trend in product quality and freshness. They are also guaranteed halal.
PFP has a research and development department to create more products that suit the needs and preferred tastes of consumers.
PFP has been shipping processed seafood products to many countries worldwide for more than 30 years. It now covers 21 overseas markets.
Thawatchai said that last year, PFP’s international sales passed Bt1.3 billion, of which 72 per cent was to the Asian market, 12 per cent to Europe, 8 per cent to North America and 8 per cent to Oceania (Australia and New Zealand).
This year, PFP plans to continue expanding distribution channels to European and North American markets.
These markets comprise consumers with high purchasing power who opt for healthy foods.
The markets are directly relevant to the positioning of PFP products, whose target group is the middle class.
In Asia, the focus is on China, which is the biggest market for imitation crab sticks.
For the CLMV market (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam), PFP will focus on expansion to supermarkets and the large-scale modern trade in cities.
PFP is exploring new markets such as Muslims in Indonesia in line with the government’s policy to make Thailand one of the world’s top |five halal food exporters within five years.
The company’s strategy for expansion to overseas markets this year is to develop products to serve changing consumer behaviour, increase the quantity purchased by existing customers by 5-10 per cent by offering special promotions and campaigns, and seek new customers via various exhibitions and trade shows in new markets, especially in the Muslim countries to increase halal market share, Thawatchai said.