Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation

MONDAY, 19 AUGUST 2019, KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) through its eTRADE Programme has selected Halal Street UK as the first emarketplace under the programme that targets the United Kingdom and Europe at large. The selection of Halal Street UK brings the total number of emarketplaces under eTRADE to 20.

The collaboration between Malaysia’s trade promotion agency and the emarketplace aims to promote the export of halal-certified products digitally, through Halal Street UK’s global supply chain that involves both B2C and B2B.

According to MATRADE’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Pn. Sharimahton Mat Saleh, it is important for MATRADE to continue expanding its list of emarketplaces so Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will have more options of markets to explore for their export business. “We have been championing Malaysian companies’ involvement in ecommerce for more than five years now (since eTRADE’s inception). Digital platform is the most cost-effective vehicle for SMEs to go global and it also opens up the opportunity for more entrepreneurs from all walks of life to expedite their involvement in global business,” Sharimahton said.

“We are pleased to have Halal Street UK as one of eTRADE’s emarketplaces and we hope from this selection, Malaysian SMEs’ can better access the European market through online export. The prospects of halal products such as Food & Beverages, Beauty Products, Health Supplements, Hijab and Baby Products are immense in Europe due to the high Muslim population there. Apart from being syariah-compliant, Halal products have higher, if not superior quality, compared to other products. This is due to the stringent process the products have to go through before they can be certified halal and it starts from the point the raw material is being sourced to the point they reached the end users,” she added.

Meanwhile, according to one of Halal Street UK’s founders Simon Suresh, a Malaysian lawyer living in the UK, the collaboration with MATRADE definitely adds value to Halal Street UK’s effort to assist more Malaysian SMEs venture into the UK and its surrounding markets.

“This collaboration simply means that Malaysian Halal SMEs will be entitled to receive the eTRADE assistance such as the monetary facilitation when they take part in Halal Street. We are optimistic that this collaboration will help Malaysian Halal SMEs get their products into the UK and European markets in a much shorter time,” Simon shared.

“Qualified SMEs will be able to instantly obtain access to over 44 million Muslims in the European market, and over 15,000 existing subscribers. In UK alone the halal food market is GBP770 million,” he added.

With this new development for the eTRADE Programme, MATRADE hopes more local SMEs in the halal industry will grab the opportunity to kickstart or expand their export business through the eTRADE Programme. “By increasing the pool of exporters among SMEs, we will be able to increase the export contribution of SMEs to 25 per cent by 2025 from 17.5 per cent recorded in 2018 – as stipulated in the National Entrepreneurship Policy 2030. With a higher number of SMEs in export, the economy will prosper and this will benefit all Malaysians,” Sharimahton explained.

Halal Street UK is a Malaysian-owned halal e-marketplace in the UK, established in 2014 and is based in both the UK and Malaysia. Following the selection of Halal Street UK, the emarketplace is running a series of training for interested SMEs to on-board its emarketplace through the eTRADE Programme. The training will highlight topics such as ‘The UK and EU market potential’, ‘Logistics and courier briefing’, ‘The EU regulations’ as well as a briefing on the eTRADE Programme. For more details, email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.matrade.gov.my/en/etrade.