The Development Of Agrifood in Brunei

The Agrifood sector will become Brunei Darussalam’s new direction to
compete with the regional and international market. According to the
implementation of the strategic Medium Term Plan 2008-2013, The
Agriculture and Agrifood Department, will use the Brunei Halal brand for this purpose. The
value added product will
receive a place in the international market
especially for the Muslim population which is 1.9billion. The regional
population is also believed to be a big market and Brunei Darussalam is
actively focusing their efforts to market local products not only for the
local community which is small but also the international market.

The Value added meat products have recorded a production of $7.85
billion in 2008 compared to the $9.88 billion in 2007.
Meanwhile, Value added production costs based on agricutural growth
increased approximately around $30billion in 2007 to nearly
$45billion in 2008.

Among the activities organised which have contributed to the increase in production are:

– introducing quality and safety security guidelines by the department to provide competitive advantage to local producers,

– launching certain policies such as Good Manufacturing
Practices (GMP) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) to
local food producers in order to raise their standing in the local and
international market, and

-comprehensive data collecting to produce a precise output.

Implementation methods in quality control and security by the
Agriculture Department provide competitive benefits in the local
production, GMP application and
introductory to HACCP to local food
producers. It will allow them to be competitive in the local and
international market and more comprehensive data collecting for data
production.

In the country, more than 100 local companies are in the food
manufacturing enterprises. Out of the total, more than 90%
is comprised of small and medium entrepreneurs. About 26% of them
produce traditional local pastries and cakes, 23% produce
biscuits and baked goods, 13% produce meat, 11% are
fisheries, 9% are in ice cream and beverages, 5% are in snack
food, 5% sauce and flavouring products and 9% are other
products including preserved food, soya bean productions, noodles and
condiments. Processed meat contributes about $7.85 billion, of which 15% are from the food manufacturing industry.

The Agricultural and Agrifood Department will focus on the
development of the agrifood manufacturing industry by utilising raw
material from regional areas for the value added processing. The
department also predicts the increase in economy from the local food
production based on agriculture will reach $1.87 billion by
2023. Total production in the staple food manufacturing is estimated to
increase by 5% from 2005 until 2013 and is targeted to increase by 10% from 2014 until 2023. Meanwhile, the department also predicted
more than 7 thousand job opportunities in the Agrifood industry by
2023.

To achieve these targets, The Agricultural and Agrifood Department will
implement a number of projects which will support the local food
manufacturers in producing a high quality, safe and guaranteed halal
food product as well as being competitive with international products.

This
includes organizing workshops to shape the way to develop agrifood
activity and the development of 20 selected and identified potential
products, chosen as a result of the Agriculture Consultation Product Market
Research for Brunei Darussalam.