Over the past two years, plant-based food consumption has grown by 49% across the EU, reaching a total sales volume of €3.6 billion.
Major Yunnan region agrees to cooperate with Malaysia on trade and halal products
2025-05-15
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (left) presents a souvenir to Ruan Chengfa, Governor of Yunnan Province in southwest China, after a state visit to China today. Yunnan has agreed in principle to collaborate with Malaysia on several issues to boost trade, including halal product certification and transportation.
KUNMING: Yunnan has agreed in principle to collaborate with Malaysia on several issues to boost trade, including halal product certification and transportation.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said these issues were discussed in a meeting with Yunnan Governor Ruan Chengfa and Communist Party of China Yunnan Provincial Secretary-General Chen Hao today.
He said trade between Yunnan province and Malaysia exceeded US$340 million between November last year and January this year, with Malaysia's main export to Yunnan being palm oil, while Yunnan's exports to Malaysia were mainly agricultural products.
However, he said there was huge potential for business development between the province and Malaysian companies.
"Malaysia has had some minor issues when it comes to trade with Yunnan, specifically with China as a whole, as the free trade agreement has not yet been finalised. But Malaysia has taken positive steps to allow some Chinese products into the country."
"The Ministry of International Trade and Industry will take some more proactive measures to increase trade with China."
Zahid said halal products are a good project. "Specifically, (we can) export halal raw materials to Yunnan Province and Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
"In Xinjiang, there are many halal products, such as halal cosmetics and medicines, so we can provide halal raw materials needed for production."
“But there is a problem, they do not have halal certification,” he told Malaysian media, adding that Nguyen and Chen had agreed to actively promote bilateral trade relations between Malaysia and Yunnan in the halal industry on an official basis, as well as on a business-to-business basis.
Zahid said cooperation with Yunnan and Xinjiang would also help Malaysia share the $1.1 trillion global halal market as products could be sold internationally.
He said the Islamic Development Ministry's (Jakim) halal certification would also be "internationalized" in this way, although it is already recognized by some countries, including South Korea and Japan, which will host the next Olympic Games and needs to prepare halal-certified food for athletes from Muslim countries.
Zahid said the Jakim laboratory will be established in Yunnan, although it is too early to decide where it will be located.
Regarding transportation, he said Yunnan officials are keen to build a high-speed rail line between Bangkok and Kunming. This could potentially connect to several Asian countries, along with the high-speed rail lines between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and now there may be a Bangkok-Kunming line in addition to the proposed line between Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
Zahid said such a link would make it feasible for passengers to board a train in Singapore and travel all the way to Beijing, as there is also a high-speed rail line between Kunming and the Chinese capital.