DENVER — In the past year, five US pork facilities have become eligible to export to Malaysia, with another recently being approved without the need for an on-site audit, which has supported significant growth in that market.

While Malaysia has previously maintained a cumbersome process for approving US plants, the country is emerging as a promising destination for US pork as it modifies its process, according to the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF). Malaysia is working to remove the barriers of on-site audits for export approval to only requiring a paper application.

“Malaysia had requested to come do a physical audit of five pork facilities,” explained Jim Remcheck, USMEF director of export services. “They wanted a selection of five facilities to physically audit, and then, therefore, if all five pork plants passed the audit, any future pork plants wanting to be registered for Malaysia could do so via a paper application process and not have to post a physical audit in order to become registered.”

Remcheck believes the recent approval of a pork facility without an on-site audit is a “harbinger of good things to come.”

Last year US pork exports to Malaysia reached 5,170 tonnes with a value of $16.3 million, which was over 1,500% of 2022 levels. Through May of this year, exports are approximately 50% above the 2023 pace, already topping $10 million in value.

Other contributing factors to growth in US pork exports to Malaysia included the impact of African swine fever (ASF) on domestic production and tightening supplies of European pork.

As Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country, a large portion of the population refrains from consuming pork. However, the non-Muslim portion of the population has a strong demand for pork.

USMEF is working to get more beef facilities approved by Malaysia as well, but this process has proved challenging.

“Because there’s no halal aspect to the pork approvals, we are in a scenario in which we can do this paper process,” Remcheck said. “When it comes to approving a beef facility, not only does the Malaysia Department of Veterinary Services need to be involved in the physical audit, their halal authority does as well. So that makes things a lot more complicated for beef.”