Officials work to get Malaysian ban on meatwork practices lifted

All but one of New Zealand's beef processors had been suspended from exporting halal meat to Malaysia as officials began delicate negotiations over the issue last night.

Officials from New Zealand and Malaysia were meeting in Kuala Lumpur to negotiate a way through the suspension of meat processors over halal killing.

Meat industry officials remained tight-lipped yesterday, saying the situation was "fluid".

"All we are focused on is why Malaysia has suspended certain establishments and how we can move through that," said Meat Industry New Zealand chief executive Caryll Shailer.

Only Affco's Moerewa works north of Auckland remains on the list of beef processors still licensed for export to Malaysia.

New export standards were brought in a year ago and the suspension of NZ processors was "preliminary", according to the New Zealand Food Safety Authority.

All animals slaughtered in New Zealand are stunned first and some cattle are killed using "thoracic sticking", where an artery in the chest is severed to speed death.

True halal killing is a breach of New Zealand's animal welfare rules and it took years for the issue to be resolved by exporters.

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department has said it became aware of the thoracic sticking procedure only after auditing Australian slaughterhouses three months ago. Malaysia has suspended some Australian and Brazilian processors also.

Malaysia's Agriculture Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, said his ministry would ask exporting nations not to make thoracic sticking compulsory for slaughterhouses exporting to Muslim countries.

Malaysia has been New Zealand's second-largest customer for beef offal and eighth most valuable market for beef.