KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 136,453 food and beverage (F&B) service establishments were operating in 2022 with gross output value of RM99 billion compared with 167,490 establishments valued at RM66.4 billion in 2015, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

In its Economic Census Report 2023 released on Monday, DOSM said food services recorded the highest number of establishments, with 107,129 establishments, contributing 78.5 per cent, followed by event catering services (16,208 establishments; share: 11.9 per cent) and beverage services (13,116 establishments; share: 9.6 per cent).

It said in 2022, value added for the overall F&B services was RM43.8 billion, registering an annual growth rate of 6.6 per cent against 2015.

"Food services recorded the highest contribution of value added of 83.4 per cent (RM36.5 billion), while beverage services and event catering services contributed 9.5 per cent (RM4.2 billion) and 7.1 per cent (RM3.1 billion) respectively.

"Selangor recorded the highest value added at RM18.5 billion (compound annual growth rate or CAGR: 12.2 per cent), followed by Kuala Lumpur with RM6.4 billion (CAGR: 3.5 per cent) and Johor with RM4.1 billion (CAGR: 6.7 per cent)," it added.

DOSM said the number of persons engaged in 2022 was 1.07 million versus 891,616 in 2015, with an annual growth rate of 2.8 per cent. Food services recorded the highest number of persons engaged to register 871,155 persons with a share of 80.7 per cent.

This was followed by event catering services with 110,593 persons (10.2 per cent) and beverage services with 98,095 persons (9.1 per cent), it said.