Women Entrepreneurs Seek New Export Markets Through MIHAS 2026

KUALA LUMPUR — The business conversations taking place at MIHAS 2026 this week are giving a group of women entrepreneurs something that is often harder to find than exhibition space: direct access to potential customers in overseas markets.

Through Women in Export, or WiEX, 80 women-owned and women-led businesses are taking part in the four-day Malaysia International Halal Showcase, which continues at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre through Saturday.

Sixty of the businesses are Malaysian, while 20 are international exhibitors. More than 120 business-matching sessions have been targeted for Malaysian companies in the WiEX Pavilion, as part of a wider effort by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation, or MATRADE, to connect local businesses with international buyers. MATRADE is bringing about 300 buyers to MIHAS through its International Sourcing Programme.

For a small company trying to enter a foreign market, the significance of those meetings can be greater than the exposure generated by a trade-show booth.

A potential buyer can ask questions that cannot easily be answered by a brochure: How much can the company produce? Can it meet the requirements of another market? How quickly can it deliver? Can the price compete? And, perhaps most importantly, can the relationship continue after the exhibition?

Those are the questions that will determine whether WiEX becomes more than a prominent feature of MIHAS 2026.

From exhibition space to export opportunity

Malaysia has spent years building an international reputation around halal standards, certification and trade promotion. MIHAS has become an important meeting place for companies operating across that ecosystem.

But the path from a halal-certified product to an international customer is rarely straightforward.

For smaller businesses, particularly those still building their export capabilities, finding buyers and distributors can be as challenging as developing the product itself. Financing, production capacity, market regulations and logistics can determine whether an opportunity identified at a trade show becomes a commercial relationship.

WiEX has been structured with that reality in mind.

The initiative combines the dedicated WiEX Pavilion with business matching, a forum and the Women Economic Warrior Awards. Its forum is addressing issues facing women exporters, including market diversification, digitalisation, changing global trade conditions and business resilience.

The focus is significant because the halal economy has expanded well beyond its traditional association with food.

MIHAS 2026 brings together businesses across 14 industry clusters, including food and beverages, cosmetics and personal care, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, Muslim-friendly tourism, Islamic finance, halal medical devices and ingredients.

Women-owned businesses are participating across that wider landscape, where international competitiveness increasingly depends on a combination of halal compliance, product quality, branding, technology, financing and the ability to deliver consistently.

A test for Malaysia’s halal export ambitions

The initiative also comes as Malaysia seeks to increase the contribution of halal businesses to the country’s international trade.

MATRADE has tied WiEX to Malaysia’s ambition of reaching RM80 billion in halal exports by 2030. The agency has said the initiative is intended to give women-led businesses the networks and market access needed to expand beyond the domestic market.

The wider numbers surrounding MIHAS illustrate the scale of the opportunity.

The 2026 exhibition features 2,400 booths across 14 industry clusters. MIHAS says the event has recorded 50,340 trade visitors and 4,000 business meetings, while RM6.05 billion in deals have been concluded.

But the figures also point to a question that will become clearer only as the week progresses.

How many of the conversations taking place in Kuala Lumpur will become actual trade?

That question is particularly relevant for smaller companies. A meeting with an overseas buyer is useful, but it is only the beginning of the export process. The commercial value comes later, when discussions turn into samples, orders, distribution arrangements and repeat business.

For that reason, the most important part of WiEX may not be the number of women entrepreneurs participating, but the quality of the connections they are making.

The outcome is still being written

MIHAS 2026 remains in progress, and the final results of the business meetings taking place around the exhibition are not yet known.

What is already evident is the scale of the effort to put women-led businesses directly into the international halal trade network.

MATRADE’s International Sourcing Programme is itself built around pre-arranged meetings between Malaysian suppliers and overseas buyers. This year’s programme has attracted interest from buyers across dozens of economies, with MATRADE targeting substantial export sales through the initiative.

WiEX gives that broader trade programme a particular focus: helping women entrepreneurs use the same international marketplace to build businesses that can operate beyond Malaysia.

For the companies in the WiEX Pavilion, the immediate priority is therefore straightforward.

Find the buyer.

Understand the market.

Make the deal work.

The longer-term significance will depend on what happens after those first conversations.

With MIHAS continuing on Friday and closing on Sept. 26, there is still time for those conversations to develop. For some of the women entrepreneurs taking part, a meeting made this week could become their first step into a market they have not yet reached.

That is the opportunity sitting behind the WiEX initiative — and one that will be measured not by the number of booths filled at MIHAS, but by the businesses that eventually make it beyond them.