The move to spearhead Russia’s domestic halal industry into new export markets has made immediate headwinds with Russia’s Damate Group, the countries leading turkey producer, planning to export 80 million rubles (@US$1 million, Malaysia Ringgit 4.6 million) worth of halal products to Malaysia under an agreement with Malaysian company 3Bumi Trading.
Under the agreement, which the companies signed at the Russia-Islamic World international economic forum in Kazan last week, Damate plans to ship poultry, lamb and beef, as well as their by-products and processed products.
Damate has already signed a contract to ship a trial batch and has begun preparations to send the first full container.
On the eve of the signing of the agreement, representatives of 3Bumi visited Damate’s turkey processing plant in Russia’s Penza Region and praised the level of production organization, advanced technology, veterinary and sanitary control and the halal management system at the plants.
Damate is preparing to soon undergo halal certification audits by bodies accredited by Malaysian Islamic development department JAKIM at its turkey product plants in Penza and Rostov regions and its lamb processing plant in the North Caucasus Federal District.
Malaysia is a member of the ASEAN Free Trade Bloc and has a Double Tax Treaty with Russia.
Damate expects Malaysia to become an important part of its export strategy in Southeast Asia, while following an Asian export strategy, it saw its exports jump 60% to 3.7 billion rubles in 2022.
