Local company signs deal to export halal meat to Malaysia

Premium Halal Abattoir, a local company, has signed a deal to export halal meat to Malaysia as local processors are eying to grab a portion of US$ 50 billion global halal meat market.
Premium Halal Abattoir, under a memorandum of understanding with Barakah Import of Malaysia, will export 50 tonnes of meat a year, with industry people demanding more government supports to explore potential market.
The government meanwhile is likely to get clearance soon from the Department of Veterinary Services of Malaysia. The certification will enable Bangladeshi companies to export processed halal meat to Malaysia.
Another meat processing company, Peninsula Abattoir, is in talks with buyers to export processed meat to Europen countries.
The pioneer in halal meat processing industry in the country, Bengal Meat Processing Industries Limited, is exporting to the UAE and Kuwait. Bengal Meat has almost trebled its export growth in a span of nine months.
The company started exporting about 3 tonnes of processed halal mutton a week to Dubai in May 2007, but now it exports 9 tonnes of mutton a week. , In September 2007, Bengal exported 12.5 tonnes of beef to Kuwait per week, but now its weekly beef export to the country has reached 25 tonnes, according to the company officials.
Dwelling on the barriers they are facing, the industry people said being an exporting country Bangladesh has no certification from any importing countries other than Kuwait and UAE. Such certification from any importing country is mandatory for an exporting country, as the country concerned is to satisfy the importer that the product exported does not contain any hazardous elements and germs.
Bangladesh government meanwhile paid fees to Office of the International Epizooties (OIE) for membership of the agency and to get certificate as well.
If Bangladesh gets certification from OIE, the country will be treated as a mad cow diseases-free country, creating opportunities for local companies to export to European countries.
The government also collected information on sanitary and phyto sanitary requirements of many countries to meet the export requirement.
“The government is trying to support businesspeople as the processed meat has export potential since Bangladesh is free from mad cow disease,” said Nil Ratan Sarkar, an official of commerce ministry.
Local businesspeople said the government should establish a modern lab for testing exportable meat.
“Since establishing a lab is very costly the government should help entrepreneurs,” said Sahedul Islam Sadi, proprietor of Peninsula Abattoir.
“We have a huge market for processed halal meat in East Asian and Middle Eastern countries. But we are failing to tap the potential as we cannot penetrate into their markets due to some legal barriers,” said Mostafizur Rahman, chief executive officer of Bengal Meat.
“If Bangladesh can have a small portion of the market it could be a very potential sector,” Rahman added.
Currently, Brazil, China, India and Australia are the main suppliers of processed meat to the global market.
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