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Northport Malaysia has expressed its keenness to
work closely on the development of the “Halal”
hub with the Port of Rotterdam, which has been
certified as the only European halal hub with an
outreach to about 30 million Muslims living in
Europe.
The cooperation will serve to expand the scope
of the bilateral trade in “Halal” products, thus
mutually benefiting the two ports said the
Northport’s Halal Committee Chairman of
Northport, Abi Sofian bin Abdul Hamid.
Speaking after meeting with a delegation from
the Port of Rotterdam last week in Kuala Lumpur
Abi said Northport is working very closely with
the Halal Development Corporation and Jabatan
Kemajuan Islam Malaysia and other relevant
agencies to make its facility fully-certified in
the logistics and transport chain and making
Malaysia the Global Halal Hub.
“We are treating the prospects and opportunities
in the halal trade as more than just a niche
market and towards this end we provide an
extensive range of facilities and services at
our distripark within Customs-free Free
Commercial Zone to allow value-adding
activities. The Halal trade in Northport is
treated as a mainstream activity, and not a
peripheral one,” said Abi.
Special zones have been designated for halal
activities in the 1 million sq ft of floor space
in the distribution centre at the Northport
Distripark.
He said under the port’s RM585 million expansion
plan, the port has taken into account the need
to further expand the facilities and services at
the distripark including extending the scope for
testing and certification of halal products.
“We also intend to meet specific requirements of
logistics operators, especially those engaging
in cargo consolidation services,” he said.
Distributors of “Halal” products are able to
leverage on the versatile facilities at
Northport that offer designated areas for
packing and unpacking of inbound or outbound
products.
There are dedicated cold and cool room
facilities to meet the requirements of
especially foodstuffs that need refrigeration or
temperature-controlled storage space.
Abi said shippers in Malaysia should use
Northport in Port Klang to directly link with
Rotterdam Port to reach European hinterland that
comprises about 400 million consumers.
Rotterdam port handled 159,000 TEUs from
Malaysia and exports 123,000 TEUs from various
parts of hinterland to Malaysia in 2006.
Meanwhile the Managing Director of Eurofigo Bv,
Derk Van Mackelenberg who was part of the
Rotterdam Port delegation in Malaysia recently
said Malaysian shippers should take advantage of
Port of Rotterdam to penetrate the UK market.
“It is a great Malaysian halal gateway for
European market,” said Derk Van.
He said Malaysian food companies would be able
to access the growing halal food market in
Europe, in particular the North-West region via
Rotterdam port. |
