News From : DagangHalal.com (04 Jun 2009)
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