Pampanga firm brings meat products to Qatar

Mekeni Food Corporation (Mekeni) President and Chief Executive Officer Prudencio Garcia (seated, left) and Hassan Alkhiyami, CEO, Alwatania International Holdings (Alwatania) sign a commercial agreement for the processing, distribution and marketing of Mekeni meat products in Doha, Qatar. (Contributed photo)

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Pampanga-based Mekeni Food Corp. has added Qatar to its export markets for meat products, tapping  some 250,000 Filipinos there.

Mekeni will sell Halal Picnic Hotdog, Chicken Tocino, and Chicken Longanisa in Asian stores starting this July, Mekeni president Prudencio Garcia said in a statement from Doha.

For the production, it signed partnerships with local manufacturers in the Gulf country that adhere to halal and world-class standards, he said.

“From a business perspective, there is huge potential because the market is already there. As a former overseas Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia, I still vividly recall how overseas Filipinos miss home, especially the food. This is why we worked this plan out until it was realized,” Garcia explained.

His parents, who were former public school teachers, established the company.

Since going overseas in 2011, Mekeni products have been sold in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, Bahrain, Brunei, The Netherlands, and New Zealand.

Mekeni has a heat-treated meat processing plant that has been accredited by the Japanese government to export to Qatar. INQ

RELATED STORIES

From a backyard venture to a global enterprise – Inquirer.net

Pampanga meat processing firm bags award | Inquirer Business

lzb