HELSINKI: Malaysian exotic fruits and agro-industry products have a huge market potential in Finland following an overwhelming response received from customers and purchasers during their promotional activity.
Organised by the Malaysian Agriculture Representative Office in the Hague (PPP The Hague) in the Netherlands, the promotion was held at an outlet of the K-Citymarket, the biggest hypermarket chain here on May 6 and 7.
It arrayed carambola (starfruit), mangosteen, mango, red dragon fruit, jackfruit, pineapple and papaya, as well as agro-industry products such as Agromas White Coffee, Agromas Seri Kaya Madu, Agromas Kuah Rojak Madu, Agromas Kuah Kacang and Coconut Chunk.
PPP The Hague Second Secretary of Agriculture Mohammad Wafiuddin Esa said the promotion served as a platform to test the market and introduce new products.
“We brought about 800 kilogrammes of fruits, the main items for the promotion, and allocated about 30 per cent for sampling, while the reset was put up for sale and they were sold out within two days,” he told Bernama.
Malaysia is a major supplier of green carambola to Finland and other European countries and K-Citymarket alone orders about EUR20,000 worth of carambola a year, he added.
“The Finnish people use the green carambola basically in their salad decoration. This time around we’ve introduced the yellow tree ripe fruit which is ready to eat and it has received a positive response from consumers.
“From the meetings we had with the hypermarket purchasing department, they are now looking seriously to launch and offer the products into their retail chains,” Mohammad Wafiuddin said.
Other fruits like red dragon fruit, mangoes, mangosteen and papaya were also highly considered by the purchaser due to its premium quality, he added.
K-Citymarket commands a 12 per cent market share and last year 18 million visitors thronged its 81 outlets, registering sales worth EUR2.08 billion.
Mohamad Wafiuddin said PPP would continue its efforts to introduce more agricultural products in the Finland market and would set up for more meetings and promotions with importers and distributors.
He said PPP would continue to explore more export markets in the European sector to help Malaysian agricultural producers tap into a premium market and leverage on higher prices.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Ambassador to Finland Datuk Blanche Olbery, during her visit to the promotion site, said the first step taken by PPP to promote Malaysian produce was encouraging and the campaign must be kept going.
She said the Malaysian Embassy in Finland was also planning to organise the Asean Food Fair in August this year where Malaysian food and fruits would also be featured.
She said many Finnish tourists had visited Asean, capitalising on the availability of direct flights to Thailand and Singapore, hence foods and fruits from the region were not unfamiliar to them.--BERNAMA