PETpla.net Insider 08 / 2017

EDITOUR PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 08/17 www.petpla.net 25 Tour Sponsors: Regional Editour report for Malaysia A divided country In terms of industry, Malaysia is divided in two. Industry around the capital Kuala Lumpur and further north produces primarily for Malaysia and exports around the world. In the south – in the Johor Sultanate – industry is oriented entirely towards Singapore. Many companies from the drinks indus- try are also drawn here from the city state. Costs for land and staff are a fraction of those within the city. On the other hand, many raw materi- als are subject to import duties; an important example for our sector is sugar. Exporting to Singapore also has its costs: border crossings of two hours duration are more the norm than the exception. We visited Asia Farm and Pere Ocean, who supply Singapore from the south of Malaysia. Our reports about Spritzer, La Boost, Bericap, Diyou Fibre, Sukano and SMI belong to the first group that works around Kuala Lumpur. As a result of the exports to Sin- gapore, production figures in Malaysia are significantly higher than regional consumption. While imports are neg- ligible, it is estimated that every fifth PET bottle of the 1.5 billion produced The government initially weighs up possible changes and when in doubt, is unlikely to implement anything immediately. In this way, the govern- ment tries to protect the culture, the country and the Malay people from too rapid westernisation. The individual sheikdoms follow conservative paths with varying strictness. The Johor Sultanate in the south is rather more open than the other ruling houses, which is a concession to the industry along the border with Singapore. However, the state – which actu- ally has the wellbeing of its residents in view – sometimes gets in its own way. So in fact no new wells are authorised for water bottling. This protects the existing bottling industry but leads to bottlenecks in provision for the population. Investment is made in new capacities only when the avail- able systems have been working com- pletely at capacity for a long period. But even then the government is not entirely consistent. Factories that sell drinks with flavourings and/ or sugar find it much easier to gain access to water. As a Muslim country, the production of alcohol plays a sub- ordinate role. in Malaysia goes to Singapore. The high proportion of drinks cans is a noteworthy part of overall consump- tion. According to Euromonitor, at 2.4 billion containers, it is twice as high as the number of PET bottles. It seems that in tropical countries, the can better suits the taste of the con- sumer. So the PET industry has some catching up to do here, although 400 bottles per head per year are already consumed. Malaysia is a Muslim nation made up of several Sultanates, which are conservatively governed. The popu- lation of about 30 million consists of 50.1% Malay, 22.6% Chinese, 11.8% indigenous and 6.7% Indian (2010). 61% consider themselves to be Muslim. By law in Malaysia, a person is automatically Muslim by birth. by Alexander Büchler Go with the flow. South East Asia Road Show