Halal chop catches Kiwi freezing works unawares

Arbi Bejjaoui is one of three Halal slaughtermen at the Richmond Meatworks in Te Aroha. Picture / Greg Bowker

A conflict of animal welfare and religious requirements may have triggered a big Malaysian cull of New Zealand meatworks.

Malaysia last week withdrew the halal certification of six slaughterhouses in Australia because of an additional procedure, known as "thoracic sticking", to make the animal die faster after slaughter.

And this week Malaysia carved a large number of premises from its list of New Zealand meatworks from which it will accept imports.

Malaysia's Agriculture Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, said if problems with the halal status of meat could not be resolved, some slaughterhouses in China could supply halal beef to his country.

Malaysia also announced on Wednesday that it was also reducing the number of animal species it would accept from some New Zealand works.

In halal slaughter, Islamic slaughtermen slit the animals' throat with a sharp knife in one stroke.

But with large animals such as cattle, some meatworks also use thoracic sticking - severing the major blood vessels around the heart with a knife to drain the blood.

However, Islamic religious rules say the animal should only be killed by a single cut across the throat.

Food Safety Authority officials said this week that they did not know why many New Zealand meatworks had lost access to the Malaysian market.

Affco's Moerewa works has been left as the only plant acceptable as a source of beef or cattle offal.

Mr Muhyiddin said he was satisfied the Chinese beef met halal requirements, the Bernama news agency reported.

At present 70 per cent of Malaysia's meat supply is imported from India and the remaining 30 per cent from New Zealand and other countries, including Australia.

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department has said it became aware of the thoracic sticking procedure only after auditing Australian slaughterhouses three months ago.

Mr Muhyiddin said his ministry would ask exporting nations to not make thoracic sticking - regarded as an animal welfare procedure - compulsory for slaughterhouses which exported their product to Muslim countries.

He believed the procedure was introduced for health or economic reasons.

New Zealand agricultural officials this week advised the nation's meat exporters not to send product to Malaysia from premises which had been dropped from the list, or product from delisted species.

The Food Safety Authority senior programme manager for market access, Peter Gollan, said he had received no official notification of the change from the Malaysians.

"We cannot provide any information at this point on cut-off dates for exports to Malaysia from premises removed from the list, or that have had species removed from the list, or any other information regarding product in transit," he told the meat industry in a memo.

"Similarly, we do not know the reasons for the changes to the list."

What it's worth

* New Zealand meat exports to Malaysia last year included 8400 tonnes of beef and 10,000 tonnes of offals, together worth $54.1 million, and 6100 tonnes of sheepmeat worth $23.4 million.

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

* New Zealand is the country's main supplier of sheepmeat, mainly to the hotel and restaurant trade.

- NZPA