BATANG BERJUNTAI, June 3 (Bernama) — Local producers of
halal meat and meat products have been urged to increase their
production as well as the promotion of their products to capture some
of the global halal products and services market which is valued at
RM7.6 trillion annually.
Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Mukhriz
Tun Mahathir said that in Malaysia itself, local meat producers also
had the edge as their products were more fresh than the imported meat
which are stored frozen for a long time in the process of delivery.
He said this after visiting Rumpun Berkat Sdn Bhd’s dairy farm
here, Wednesday. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kumpulan
Zikay.
Mukhriz said that while many local restaurants serving steak
usually advertised that their meat is imported from Australia,
Argentina, New Zealand or the US, the meat from Malaysia in reality was
also at par and capable of competing, he said.
Local meat, apart from the guarantee of being halal, are also more
fresh considering that they are kept frozen for a shorter period than
imported meat, he said.
As for the meat produced by Rumpun Berkat, the cows slaughtered
and processed by them are of the Brahman mixed breed imported from
Australia and marketed under the name of Amal Beef.
He said the opportunity to enter the global halal market should be
grabbed local producers as many of the producers of halal products
including meat are currently non Muslim countries while the consumers
were also mostly non Muslim countries.
He also hoped that meat producers like Rumpun Berkat will be able to export their products overseas in the future.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Kumpulan Zikay, Mohd Khay
Ibrahim said that the meat products of Rumpun Berkat such as prime cuts
are marketed in 17 hypermarkets in the Klang Valley with 12 of them
being Giant hypermarkets and five Carrefour hypermarkets.
He said the company started its operations after taking a 30-year
lease on the slaughter house from Perbadanan Kemajuan Pertanian
Selangor (PKPS) in 2007.
The facility had to be upgraded as the slaughter house had not
been used for 10 years. But now, it handles 50 cows daily, he said.
Right now, the company is entering its second phase where it is
putting into place the meat slicer and cutting machines as well as the
freezer rooms in order to produce meat based products like burger meat,
sausages and meat balls, Mohd Khay said.
— BERNAMA
