Foodservice is a unique and distinctive functions in Malaysian economy. In 10 years time of Malaysia development, how would you see changes that may occur in foodservice operations.

Foodservice industry is one of sector in Malaysia that growth faster. This is because due to the income elasticities of demand for food is bigger among consumers in Malaysia. The consumers’ trend expenditure pattern on foodservice in Malaysia is expected to continue into the future and grow at a faster rate (Tey, Mad, Zainalabidin, Amir & Alias, 2011). An increase in income has the propensity to lead to an increase in demand on foodservice. There are many changes that occur in foodservice in Malaysia since 10 years ago.

The first changes that we will see in the foodservice industry in Malaysia is international business expansion (Lim, n.d.). Malaysian people nowadays high demand on Western foods such as hamburger, hotdog, sandwich, fried chicken, pizza, steak and others. This situation influences the growth of restaurant that produces the types of food product demand such as fast food restaurant like KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s and others. These type of restaurant enter the Malaysian market and becomes growing time to time.

Besides that, the internationalisation process also is one of the changes that we will see in the Malaysian foodservice industry. Internationalisation process is a process of increasing experiential knowledge that occur in our foodservice organization or firm (Lim, n.d.). Our Malaysian foodservice firms such as Secret Recipe, The Chicken Rice Shop, Marrybrown, Kyros Kebab, Sugar Bun and Nelson’s try to provides variety of food product and service type like international foodservice. For example, Marrybrown used Western-pronounce brand name and produce Western food. But, The Chicken Rice Shop used Western-pronounce brand name and provide Eastern food to their customer.

Other than that, the changes that occur in Malaysian foodservice is the increasing in Halal food product items. Since Malaysia has Muslim population around 60% of total population, the demands for halal food products is bigger. Most of the foodservice organization in Malaysia should have ‘halal licence’ from JAKIM to cater the demand of Muslim people. The increasing of foodservice firms that produce halal food also expand to the international market. The Malaysian foodservice firms is a global halal brand organization and becomes famous in Asia such as Secret Recipe that will enter foreign market after a year of operation (Lim, n.d.).

The other changes occur in foodservice operation is the system of foodservice organization itself. Nowadays, there are many franchise system that used in the foodservice in Malaysia. For example, the biggest of franchising foodservice organization in Malaysia is KFC and McDonalds. This type of foodservice operation help change in the way foodservice operation is operating. The quick service restaurant is growth in faster to cater the demand of customer nowadays. All the knowledges, skills, technologies and others from the franchise system will help Malaysian foodservice growth.

Foodservice operation in Malaysia also change in the technology due to the increasing of information technology (IT) nowadays. The foodservice firm will update their firm with new technology in order to increase their performance. They used the IT system for promotion, marketing, communication, operation, management and others. For example, the use of software in management of the operation helps them to communicate with the vendors, staff and customer of their firms.

Besides that, foodservice operation in Malaysia also change in food technology improvement. The food nowadays will be processed to the frozen foods and sell to the market. There are many Malaysian frozen product items such as donut, pastries like ‘karipap’ and ‘samosa’,fish product like ‘keropok lekor’, meat product like patty, nugget, meatball and others. These types of foods will lead to increasing in street kiosk or stall and also vehicle foodservice stall.

Lastly, the changes in Malaysian foodservice operation helps in growth of economic and gives job opportunity for the Malaysian people. The Malaysian government is one of the organization that help to the changes in Malaysian foodservice operation in Malaysia. Government give support and encouraged Malaysian to be an entrepreneur or businessman. This will increase in foodservice industry because this type of business is easy to entering and operating.

References

Lim, K.L. (n.d.). The facilitation at per-internationalisation stage: A study of Malaysian foodservice firms. Retrieved from http://www.internationalconference.com.my/

Tey, Y. S., Mad, N.S., Zainalabidin, M., Amin, M.A., & Alias, R. (2011). Expenditure patterns on foodservice in Malaysia. Journal of Tourism, Hospitality & Culinary Arts, 1-8.