MATRADE Turns to Africa as Malaysia Seeks New Halal Trade Corridors

KUALA LUMPUR — Africa has occupied an unusually prominent place in Malaysia’s trade conversation at this year’s Malaysia International Halal Showcase, as the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation seeks to deepen commercial links with a continent it increasingly regards as important to the next phase of the country’s halal economy.

The emphasis has come repeatedly from MATRADE chairman Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican during MIHAS 2026. His remarks have gone beyond the familiar proposition that Africa, with its large and growing consumer markets, represents an export opportunity for Malaysian companies.

The more significant question for MATRADE is how those opportunities can be turned into lasting commercial relationships — and whether Malaysia can build trade corridors linking its halal industry with markets across Africa and the Middle East.

That ambition is already beginning to take shape.

African participation at MIHAS has expanded this year, with Senegal bringing the largest African delegation and countries including Rwanda and Comoros among those represented at the showcase. The growing presence comes as MATRADE works to bring more international buyers into direct contact with Malaysian exporters through its International Sourcing Programme. About 450 international buyers and 600 Malaysian exporters are taking part in more than 4,000 scheduled business meetings.

For MATRADE, however, Africa is not a new discovery.

The agency has spent several years developing commercial links with African markets. In 2025, it organised an eight-day Third Country Training Programme involving representatives from 10 African countries — Algeria, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. MATRADE has also identified Egypt, Libya, South Africa and Kenya among the markets where it has undertaken export-promotion activities.

The scale of existing trade provides part of the rationale.

MATRADE says Malaysia’s trade with Africa totalled RM258.6 billion cumulatively between 2020 and 2024, including RM154.4 billion in Malaysian exports. Major export categories included palm oil and palm oil-based products, petroleum products, processed food and electrical and electronic products.

The halal economy gives Malaysia another platform from which to develop those relationships.

MIHAS is broader than a food exhibition. Its sectors include food and ingredients, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, modest fashion, Islamic finance, logistics and services. That breadth allows MATRADE to position halal not simply as a certification issue, but as part of a wider commercial ecosystem in which Malaysian companies can engage buyers, distributors and business partners.

North Africa illustrates where that strategy could lead.

A MATRADE-led export acceleration mission to Egypt and Libya in May 2024 generated RM250 million in sales from more than 180 business meetings involving 10 Malaysian companies. The participating businesses represented sectors ranging from fast-moving consumer goods and building materials to machinery, renewable energy, medical devices, palm oil-based products and services.

The relationship with Libya has since developed further.

Libya made its first appearance at MIHAS this year with a national pavilion. MATRADE said Malaysian exports to Libya rose 73.4 per cent year on year to RM106.5 million during the first eight months of 2026, while bilateral trade reached RM1.03 billion in 2025, an increase of 38.9 per cent from the previous year.

Reezal has described the Libyan participation as more than a conventional country pavilion. He has pointed to the possibility of using Libya as a commercial link between Malaysia and North Africa and of connecting African businesses with Malaysia’s halal ecosystem.

Egypt presents another possibility.

During MIHAS, Reezal told Ahram Online that Cairo could potentially host a future edition of MIHAS, citing Egypt’s position as a gateway to Africa and the Middle East as well as the strategic importance of the Suez Canal.

Such a move would represent a different use of MIHAS.

For more than two decades, the showcase has brought international buyers to Malaysia. An overseas edition in Cairo would instead put Malaysia’s trade platform closer to the markets it is trying to develop, potentially giving Malaysian exporters a base from which to build relationships across North Africa and beyond.

MATRADE has already experimented with taking the MIHAS platform overseas. An international edition in Dubai generated RM2.2 billion in sales, while MIHAS in Malaysia recorded RM4.3 billion in sales in 2024, according to MATRADE.

The agency’s approach to Africa also extends into the mechanics of business matching.

Reezal has said MATRADE wants the digital platform supporting MIHAS to become more useful to African businesses, including through the possible addition of African languages. The platform currently supports eight languages and is designed to match buyers with suppliers according to sourcing requirements.

That may appear a relatively small adjustment, but it reflects a larger challenge facing Malaysian companies entering unfamiliar markets.

Finding demand is one thing. Finding the right buyer, understanding the market, establishing trust and completing a transaction are another.

MATRADE’s role is increasingly focused on that second part.

The agency is also planning to monitor business generated through MIHAS after the event, rather than treating the number of meetings or expressions of interest as the final measure of success. MATRADE has said it will assess whether potential transactions eventually develop into actual orders.

That distinction will be particularly important in Africa, where markets differ sharply in size, regulation, purchasing power, infrastructure and business conditions.

The opportunity, therefore, cannot be measured simply by the number of African buyers attending MIHAS.

The more revealing measure will be whether the relationships established in Kuala Lumpur lead to repeat business, distribution agreements, investment and longer-term supply-chain connections.

That is where MATRADE’s Africa strategy will ultimately be tested.

For Malaysia, Africa offers a route into markets beyond its traditional trading relationships. For African businesses, Malaysia offers access to an established halal ecosystem and a commercial gateway into Asia.

MIHAS has provided the meeting place.

The question now is whether those meetings become something more durable — and whether Africa becomes a permanent part of Malaysia’s halal trade architecture rather than simply a growing presence at one of the industry’s largest annual gatherings.