Superior Halaal Meats, sellers of different kinds of meat and fish in Malawi have embarked on expansion campaign due demand by their customers who need their products.
Esa Arab, Managing Director for the company confirmed the development in an exclusive interview.
He says currently, the response is very satisfactory hence the reason for the expansion.
“We are opening another shop at Ginnery corner in May where we will be selling hot take away meals at very affordable prices with high quality and volume.
“With the current economic problems, we have noticed that many people prefer to get products that are of value for money and to this effect, we have taken a decision to reduce our profits to allow our customers buy our products at very affordable prizes.
“We are also planning to open two branches in Mozambique due high demand for our products there and as a form of earning foreign currency,” he says.
Arab further said that their products are Halaal as they get them from S and A cold storage and Flatlands Halaal meat of which both of are certified by Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM)’ Halaal Department.
He added that they prefer the above suppliers beef because they have a special feed for their cattle, which is formulated with right nutrients to give good quality beef.
“All animals are slaughtered at Cold Storage, before they are transported to our plant where we add value by processing the beef into so many cuts such as polony and sausages among others.
“Another reason for choosing these suppliers is that they are breeding their own cattle for us apart from sourcing them from the local farmers though we have noticed a shortage in supply of goats,” he says.
He, however, says despite the success the challenges still remains like frequent and unannounced power cuts. Arab also said it is unfortunate that cost of anything is keeping on escalating on the market.
“Just imagine within 6 months, the price of Chicken has gone up four times,” he lamented.
Arab further says the other challenge is that they are failing to get enough Chambo for their customers because fishermen are complaining that they cannot transport fish from Mangochi and Monkey bay due to high cost.
“We are appealing to the vendors to bring any Chambo they have to us so that we can buy and we have increased the price to encourage them to bring more Chambo to us,” he says.
He urges the new players in the industry to be cautious on the costing methods because there are invisible loses when processing beef such as weight loss which results in selling at low cost.
“We are also even failing to buy a new machine because of lack of forex to improve our range of products though we are innovative by using the current one to develop more products,” he lamented.
However, despite facing these challenges, Arab says prices of their products are still affordable and of high quality.
Superior Halaal meats started in 2000 and have eight branches across the country; its main branch is at Ginnery corner in Blantyre and is the largest retail meat outlet in the country.
Reporting by Robert Kumwenda, Malawi Muslims Official Website official Correspondent
