justlife: Consumption with a conscience

EARTH Day is celebrated by Malaysian organics retailer justlife? Group at their seven outlets with a carnival– farmers’markets, cookery classes and bread-making demonstrations – that is one way the company fulfils its mission to promote the environment. Formed in 1999, when the term ‘organic’ was new to Malaysians, justlife is now one of the country’s reputable sources of organic food products. In Penang for this event, justlife director RACHAEL TAI spoke with FPMJ about the group’s vision, commitment to quality, strong relationship with suppliers and dynamic marketing strategies.

What is the mission of justlife?
The objective of justlife since it was founded is to promote the environment. What  the  founder  wanted  is  not  just providing  health,  but  also  creating awareness on what we can do to contribute to the wellbeing of Mother Nature. That is the mission we are working on. That is why we do Earth Day carnivals. Some people stand in front of bulldozers to stopthe  forest  from  getting  cut.  Some  work with animals. In justlife, selling organics is one of the methods we chose to promote public awareness on eco-friendly lifestyles. Everybody needs to buy things, everybody needs to shop. So from the shopping itself, if you can change the shopping habits a bit, that can help a lot.

What is the organic food retail industry in Malaysia like?

Looking at the situation now, organic is so common and is available in almost all the supermarkets in Malaysia. There are also many organic specialty stores like justlife, and a big chain store is coming in as well. So organic in terms of retail is really booming in Malaysia. More people are looking for it, more people are aware of it and not only because of the health perspective, but also because of other things like environmental reasons as well.

Why is there such a high demand for organic products now?
Ithink it is because of the educational level of Malaysians. Organic is one of the fastest  growing  industries  in  the  world. Malaysians  are  quite  health-conscious, especially in cities like Kuala Lumpur andPenang. The other reason is that there is lot of exposure when Malaysians go overseas where they see a lot of organic products. There are more organic producers now from Malaysia as well.

What demographic is driving the market?
From our experience it used to be the older  generation,  and  female.  But  now there are younger clients. Organic is getting accepted, and products for young children especially are getting very popular.

In Kuala Lumpur we have youngsters like college students that look for organic products. Initially we thought it must be for their parents but they are actually looking for  things  for  themselves. They  started becoming  aware  of  organics,  thanks,  I suppose, to social media exposure. It is a very encouraging trend.

In what way can the local organic food industry further develop?
For organics to grow in Malaysia, one thing we hope to see is more producers. For organic products, we always encourage local  produce. The  next  step  is  to  have more manufacturing. For example, people who turn fresh crops into tea, or enzyme producers.  We do have people like that in Malaysia, but it is still very small scale. We hope we can be like our neighbouring countries like Thailand, where there are more manufacturers.

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