In December 2018, a claim that Zara Foodstuff Industries Sdn Bhd’s ‘Cap Kipas Udang’ brands of soy sauces are imitation products has gone viral on social media.
“This is an old ‘story’ which first appeared in 2009 and the case has already been settled with the party charged in court,” said Marketing Director Hasnah Binti Abd Rahman of ZFI Marketing Sdn Bhd, the company’s marketing arm.
“We are consistently and closely monitoring the market together with the relevant authorities and we can assure our consumers that there has been no imitation soy sauce Cap Kipas Udang or any of our other products in the marketplace currently,” she added.
The recent re-awakening of the viral post from a particular blog site was detected on 27th December 2018 and a police report was lodged on 3rd January this year. Reports have also been lodged with other relevant authorities.
“In order to thwart would-be counterfeit producers we have implemented production procedures that would make it easy to spot imitation products.
“For example we periodically change the packaging and introduced security colouring for our labels,” said Plant Director, Nazri Bin Ismail.
“The viral picture showed a bottle of the old cap, but we have changed those three years ago,” he added.
Zara Foodstuff Industries Sdn Bhd, with an annual turnover of over RM70 million (2018), is celebrating its 32nd year in the industry and has accumulated several industry awards and is ISO 9001 certified. It is also 100% Bumiputra-Muslim owned.
“Our products are 100% certified Halal by Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) and Jabatan Agama Islam Negeri Johor (JAINJ),” Hasnah added.
The company produces salty and sweet soy sauces, chilli and tomato sauces and Srikaya a popular coconut egg jam which is also exported to South Korea and Canada.
Its main export markets are Singapore, Brunei, Australia, the UK and Saudi Arabia. 20% of the annual turnover is earned from exports.
