Malaysia’s first grocery store in Saudi Arabia offers 300 products

KUALA LUMPUR: The first-ever Malaysian specialty grocery store, Kedai Asia, officially launched in Jeddah on May 10, offers more than 300 types of Malaysian food and beverage products.
Located in Jeddah's Al Rawdah neighbourhood, within the vicinity of Tahlia Street, an important fashion and shopping street in the city's mid-town area, Kedai Asia is fast becoming a popular spot among Malaysian and other Asian expatriates, apart from the locals.
Nobody would dare think of finding authentic local Malaysian products like "budu", "belacan" or shrimp paste, "tempoyak", "cincalok" and "pekasam" in a far away foreign land, but they were right there on the display shelves.
Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) Trade Commissioner Yusram Yusup told Bernama recently that other popular Malaysian brands that were snapped up by the locals included Hang Tuah Coffee, Old Town, Adabi, Yeo's, Kipas Udang, Boh Tea and Life products.
"It is a good platform for Malaysian food and beverage suppliers, particularly small and medium enterprises to work with Kedai Asia as they have the necessary knowledge to import Malaysian products into Saudi Arabia," he said.
The operation of the store started in 2011 in a different location before it moved to the current premise, and according to its founder, Engku Isa Al-Husam, the business started as a supplier and distributor of Malaysian food products to hypermarkets.
"Due to good response from Malaysians living in Jeddah, and of course from the locals too, we decided to set up Kedai Asia.
"When we first started to bring in the products, there are lots of procedures to observe, involving registration of each product and getting the approval from the Saudi Food and Drug Authority," Engku Isa said.
"The venture into Saudi was made possible with the support from our Consulate and Matrade representative in Jeddah. They have been very supportive whenever we encountered issues relating to documentation and import procedures," Ahmad Imran, Kedai Asia chief executive officer added.
Besides providing various types of Malaysian products, the store also supplies haj and umrah food services to various providers in Makkah.
Kedai Asia aims to establish branches in major cities in the Kingdom such as Makkah, Riyadh and Dammam.
Meanwhile, Malaysia`s Consul General in Jeddah, Datuk Mohammad Ali Selamat said: "The Malaysian Consulate and Matrade are very supportive of such initiatives that can showcase local products in the Kingdom.
"Indirectly, it promotes Malaysian brands in Saudi and creates more awareness among local citizens on Malaysian products."
Kedai Asia concept store is currently promoting more than 50 Malaysian companies with over 500 SKU (stock keeping unit) products.
Some Malaysians residing in Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah also attended the launching earlier this month. Some signature Malaysian dishes such as "roti canai", "nasi lemak", "teh tarik" and "kuih muih" were served during the event. — Bernama