MELAKA, July 4 — Abdul Rahman Hassan, 69, who ventured into business 19 years ago with just RM50, is planning to export his spicy tamarind paste, known locally as ‘asam pedas’, to Japan next year.

The owner of two restaurants in Ujong Pasir and Bukit Katil here, created the paste for use at the restaurants, only to find that relatives and close friends wished to buy it and soon after, the demand became so great that Abdul Rahman decided to bottle the paste last year.

Speaking to Bernama today, Abdul Rahman who is better known as Pak Man, said he was looking forward to exporting his paste to Japan because of the interest received from some parties there.

He is currently in the midst of acquiring halal certification and attending to other requirements related to completing the production of the paste, in readiness for overseas export, while future plans for his business include procuring more processing machines to meet the increasing demand.

According to Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) records, Malaysia exported processed food worth RM4.4 billion to East Asia last year, with Japan supplying the second-largest demand at RM946 million – other destination countries comprised China (RM1.87 billion, in first place), Hong Kong (RM648 million), Korea (RM543 million) and Taiwan (RM361 million). — Bernama