IN Brief:
- Tanmiah and Tradewinds have signed a 12-month memorandum covering halal protein production and distribution.
- The companies will assess joint investment in a Malaysian further-processing facility and wider poultry infrastructure.
- Malaysia could become a regional production and export hub for Tanmiah's expansion across Asia-Pacific markets.
Tanmiah Food Company and Malaysia’s Tradewinds have agreed to explore halal protein production, further processing, and distribution across Malaysia and the wider Asia-Pacific region, including possible joint investment in a Malaysian processing facility.
The 12-month memorandum of understanding covers production, sourcing, importation, further processing, branding, and distribution. The companies will also assess exports of Saudi-produced poultry into Malaysia, subject to regulatory approval, and the use of Malaysian production assets as a hub for wider regional markets.
No investment value or production capacity has yet been committed. The agreement instead establishes a framework covering a possible further-processing plant in Malaysia, regional production, and potential future investment across poultry farming, hatcheries, and primary processing.
Tanmiah operates a vertically integrated poultry business with farms, hatcheries, feed mills, processing facilities, and distribution operations across the Middle East. The company says its network includes 163 farms, seven hatcheries, six feed mills, and four primary processing plants.
Tradewinds brings an established position in Malaysia and access to a market where halal certification forms part of both domestic food production and export strategy. The partners plan to examine dual halal certification as part of the proposed regional protein operation.
The memorandum was signed during the Malaysia International Halal Showcase and formally disclosed through the Saudi Exchange. The exchange filing records a signing date of 24 September, with the partnership subsequently announced more widely.
Saudi-produced poultry could provide an initial export route while the partners examine local processing. Further processing would move the relationship beyond bulk poultry supply into higher-value products that can be portioned, marinated, coated, cooked, or otherwise prepared for retail and foodservice customers.
A Malaysian facility could also alter the distribution model. Producing or processing more product within Southeast Asia would place manufacturing closer to regional customers while providing greater scope to adapt specifications, packaging, and product formats for individual markets.
Zulfiqar Hamadani, group chief executive officer of Tanmiah, said Malaysia represents a strategic gateway into Asia-Pacific and that the cooperation supports the company’s ambition to develop a wider halal protein business. He also linked the programme to Saudi Arabia’s objective of increasing non-oil exports.
Dennis Foo, group chief executive officer of Tradewinds, said the companies bring complementary capabilities and identified Malaysia’s halal credentials, manufacturing base, and access to regional markets as foundations for the proposed cooperation.
Certification will be central if the agreement progresses into production. Halal poultry systems require controls around sourcing, slaughter, processing, ingredients, handling, segregation, storage, and documentation, while international shipments can add veterinary and food safety requirements alongside religious certification.
Using certification systems recognised in both Saudi Arabia and Malaysia could widen the addressable market, but it also increases the need for traceability. Ingredients, processing aids, cleaning procedures, packaging, storage, and logistics all need to remain consistent with the claims attached to finished products.
The parties have left open the possibility of investment further upstream. Their memorandum refers to potential projects involving farms, hatcheries, and poultry processing, which could eventually extend the relationship beyond further processing into primary production infrastructure.
Those investments would require a different scale of capital and operating commitment. Poultry expansion depends on feed supply, breeding and hatchery capacity, biosecurity, growing facilities, primary processing, refrigeration, and distribution, with each stage affecting the economics of the final protein product.
Tanmiah’s existing integration gives it experience across those activities, but a Malaysian expansion would need to operate within a separate regulatory, agricultural, and commercial environment. Tradewinds’ local position could therefore become more important if the relationship develops beyond imports and further processing.
The agreement remains exploratory. The Saudi Exchange filing states that future financial effects and material developments will be announced separately, leaving the Malaysian facility and wider production programme subject to subsequent commercial decisions.
The next meaningful stage will be a defined capital commitment. Confirmation of a processing plant, capacity, regulatory approvals, export volumes, or a broader poultry investment would move the partnership from a memorandum into a measurable manufacturing programme.
Until one of those milestones is reached, the industrial scope is substantial but provisional: the two companies have established the areas they intend to pursue, but have not yet committed the assets or production volumes that would determine the scale of the Asia-Pacific expansion.
