Issues and Challenges of SME’s Food Entrepreneurs in Dungun, Terengganu

This project is based on the concern of the university on the issue of small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) in the food processing industry. Among the issues faced by the SMEs are the lack of competitiveness and marketing effectiveness. They still have many shortcomings in the industry, especially in food hygiene, packaging, labelling as well as marketing. We are targeting at least 60% of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, especially those involved in the processing industry, food packaging and food stall management. Previous studies have found that SMEs have constraints in proper handling, processing and knowledge that coincide with local and international standards. In addition, they are facing problems in acquiring HALAL and MESTI certification.  A qualitative research approach was adopted with an exploratory, inductive research. The sampling method used in this research is purposive sampling since only respondents with the selected criteria will be considered as a respondent in the study. A minimum 20 entrepreneurs were selected based on the entrepreneurs list provided by Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) of Dungun and Lembaga Terengganu Tengah (KETENGAH). They are involved in the food industry such as frozen food, dry chips, cakes, fruit juice etc. We believe this project can help them address the problems and challenges mentioned earlier as the proposed project is a holistic project that will help them to become competitive and quality-conscious entrepreneurs. This project will also help entrepreneurs and food stall operators to improve the quality of their food products. Without this project, we feel that the entrepreneurs will continue facing difficulty in terms of their ability to produce high-quality food products and penetrating new and larger local markets.