From her mother’s dream to the dining tables of Malaysians, Ummu Sakinah Ghazali is now earning nearly RM20,000 in monthly sales from her soy-based business.
Branded as Soya Tenaka, the business—established five years ago—offers a variety of soy products including soy milk, tau fu fah, tofu, and most recently, tofu skin or ‘fucuk’.
The inspiration behind their tofu skin product came from the difficulty of sourcing halal-certified versions in the market. This challenge led Ummu Sakinah and her mother, Habibah Ujang, to develop their own halal version.
“It was challenging for us to find tofu skin that was halal, clean, and safe to eat.
“So we started experimenting with our own recipe. By the end of 2019, we began building a small production facility. Gradually, we invested in specific machinery for the process, including a tofu skin drying machine,” said Ummu Sakinah, a UniKL Business School graduate in Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) Islamic Finance.
The tofu skin production process is meticulous and time-consuming. By 4 a.m., they begin soaking soybeans—ensuring they are neither over-soaked nor contaminated—before slow-boiling them to produce fresh beancurd sheets.
Despite the labour-intensive work, Ummu Sakinah and her mother are proud to offer what is likely the only halal tofu skin in their area, Kampung Titian Akar in Linggi.
One of the biggest challenges they face is limited production capacity. Their current machinery can only produce about 60 packets per cycle, far short of the over 100-packet demand.
“We began production for postage during the recent Ramadan, but we had to pause the process due to limited stock.
“We are planning to expand by acquiring more machines soon to meet growing demand and operate more efficiently,” Ummu explained.
In a recent interview with UniKL’s Corporate Branding and Strategic Communication Department (UniKL CBSCD), Ummu Sakinah shared how she revived the soy business in 2019 after discovering her mother’s old recipe book and a business proposal draft.
A more comprehensive feature on Soya Tenaka will be published in the First Half 2025 edition of UniKL’s XPress Magazine, expected in June.
