Marditech To Collaborate With International Countries To Develop New Halal Hub In Johor

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 (Bernama) -- Marditech Corp Sdn Bhd, the commercial arm of the Malaysian Agriculture Research Development Institute (Mardi), is working to link Bandar Iskandar Malaysia, Johor with other countries to make it the next halal hub.

Its group chief executive officer, Anas Ahmad Nasarudin, said Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) would have a halal centre of excellence that would look into trade, promotion and traceability of halal services.

"Within Johor itself, there are many supporting government institutions that are very strong, such as Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the 2nd Global Halal Trade and Logistics Summit here today.

According to news reports, IRDA has commissioned Marditech to undertake the study of the halal hub in Iskandar Malaysia.

Marditech had developed an application, "Myhalal Trace", where it can detect any non-halal ingredients in the fish feed.

"It is to ensure that the fish that we export, say to the Middle East, is 100 per cent halal," he said.

The hub, which is also a collaborative initiative by the Labuan Corp and the Ministry of Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing, is managed by Labuan Halal Distribution Hub.

The 49-hectare hub, which focuses mainly on the marine-based products, houses dry warehouse, cold room facilities of which the traceability system come in hand.

Anas said Labuan could now offer the system to any other halal hubs too.

He said Marditech's task was to come out with solutions on how to make farming an easy job, using less manpower as the cost of labour was expensive today.

"It is our challenges to produce something that is more efficient, more cost-saving and effective as well as increasing the profitability in farming," he said.