XIAN, April 7 (Bernama) -- The ongoing annual trade fair in China's central Shaanxi province has several Malaysian entrepreneurs beaming as wide as from Kuala Lumpur to this ancient Silk Road city.

Offers of distributorship and sales have poured in for Malaysian-made snacks, juices beverages, among the products brought by a group of 28 companies taking part in the annual 13th Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between East and West China.

They are part of a delegation headed Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Ministry deputy secretary-general Datuk Mohd Hashim Abdullah to the trade show for the second year.

The brimming enthusiasm will likely lead to a pro-tem joint chamber of commerce between Malaysia and Shaanxi to be formed within the week here.

The suggestion was mooted by Mohd Hashim in his meeting with Shaanxi commerce director Li Xuemei on Sunday.

Paisley Global Marketing Sdn Bhd is already in talks with a Xian distributor and is targeting to ship its first batch of snacks. including curry puffs, cassava chips and roti canai, pickled fish and roselle juice by August.

"We are very happy with the response here, we brought six products here and the agent we shortlisted wants all six. We are talking of bringing in five million standing sachets of roselle juice a year to test the markets in northern Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia," said general manager Mohamed Shariff Abu Bakar.

He said the company would be looking at RM400,000 in sales a month for a start if the plan goes well.

Noni juice producer Ramli Yunus, however, is not toting up any figures yet because he has to return home to ramp up the supply of the fruit known locally as "mengkudu".

"But the trip is a complete success. The Chinese are very excited about our product, they told me it is cheaper than buying from the United States," said the chairman of Koperasi Pembangunan Ekonomi Kawasan Tumpat Bhd.

Ramli expects to hit the Chinese market in a year's time with the "2Park" brand of fruit juice, named similar in sound to the Kelantanese dialect for Tumpat.

His supply is limited by the shortage of mengkudu. It takes five kilograms to produce a litre of juice.

"Tumpat now has 700,000 mengkudu trees and by 2013, we hope to have 1.5 million by convincing the villagers of its economic value. We now buy 50 sen per kg of fruit," he said.

The cooperative currently produces 15,000 litres a month of which two-thirds are exported to South Korea.

Batu Caves-based Coffee Omega (M) Sdn Bhd handled more than 10 buyers in first two days of the fair and expects to send a 40-foot container in two months.

China will be the latest overseas market for the company after Lebanon, Bahrain and Brunei, said chief executive officer Muhamad Latifi Hashim.

"We are also exporting to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait soon. But China will be a different market because it is very large compared to the other countries and sales should be faster," he said.

"But we also have to sort out the language problems for us to communicate better," he added.

Coffe Omega makes four types of instant blend of Red Yeast Coffee, Fibre Coffee, Black Cumin Coffee and Tongkat Ali Cappucino.

-- BERNAMA

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Source:http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=402465