EXPORT PERFORMANCE OF WHITE COFFEE IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

White Coffee is evolved from the Malaysian traditional black coffee where traditionally,
the coffee beans were roasted with sugar, margarine and wheat while white coffee
bean is roasted with only margarine without adding sugar and wheat which makes it
looks lighter colour than the traditional one making it to be named white coffee. The
demand of white coffee has been significantly increased not only in Malaysia but
across the border, especially China. The amount of white coffee exported to China for
the first quarter of 2017 recorded US Dollar of 51 million which is almost equivalent to
the whole year of 2015. The tremendous increase of demand from overseas especially
china has encourage white coffee supplier in Malaysia to look into oversea markets.
One of the biggest coffee suppliers, Chek Hup is increasing their export of white coffee
to China as the company is anticipating an increase in demand from China. As of now,
there are 108 firms which export white coffee. The demand from overseas are
increasing. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors influencing export
performance such as pricing strategy, distribution channels and innovation. 3
hypotheses have been identified and the findings of the result will be discussed and
explained in this study.
Out of 108 firms which export white coffee, all of them were being approached to
answer the online questionnaires related to the study. 79 firms responded, and the
data were used for analysis. The result of analysis shows that pricing strategy and
innovation have significant positive relationship with export performance of white
coffee in Malaysia while distribution channels do not have significant relationship with
export performance of white coffee in Malaysia.