Hanoi (VNA) - Hernan Corporation Sdn Bhd,one of Malaysia’s largest exporters of durian-related products, has made itsdebut in the Japanese market after its maiden shipment of frozen durians,consisting of the Musang King and D101 variant, arrived at the Tokyo Portmid-January.

The Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation(MATRADE) said this was after the company had sealed an export deal via virtualbusiness meetings organised by MATRADE at the end of last year.

It was the company’s first shipment to the Japanesemarket after attempting to explore the market for several years, it said in astatement on February 8. It said the durian products would be distributed andmade accessible at local supermarkets, speciality grocery stores, onlineoperators, restaurants and others. For a start, the products will be availablein major cities in Japan such as Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.

MATRADE said Japan, being the third-largest economy inthe world by nominal gross domestic product and fourth-largest by purchasingpower parity, offered interesting areas of opportunities, which Malaysiancompanies could explore.

MATRADE Tokyo Trade Commissioner Niqman Rafaee M Saharsaid Malaysia offers a variety of quality products that adheres to the highstandards and stringent market entry regulations in Japan.

Although durian-related products are considered new tolocal consumers and more promotion is still needed to educate the domesticmarket, demand has been positive with growing enquiries from Asian specialitystores and restaurants, he said.

He said having a good local partner and importer wasimportant to support and assist the product registration and distributionprocess, promotion and network in the local market.

Malaysian companies are also encouraged to focus onthe booming e-commerce industry in Japan.

“With the current pandemic situation, sales via onlineplatforms have been growing at a double-digit rate, and more businessopportunities can be explored by leveraging this 50 billion USD e-commercemarket,” he was cited by Malaysia’s Bernama News Agency as saying.

Last year, Japan remained as Malaysia’s fourth-largesttrading partner for the sixth consecutive year, with total trade at 122.73billion RM.

Malaysia’s exports to Japan exceeded total importsfrom Japan by 650 million RM.

Currently, Hernan Corp ships its products to more than 12 markets, including Australia, China, the European Union, HongKong (China), New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States./.