KUALA LUMPUR: Despite doubts raised over the halal status of imported beef in the country, it has largely been business as usual for most homegrown hypermarkets, retail chains and convenience stores where sales are concerned.
Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd managing director Datuk Dr Ameer Ali Mydin said the hypermarket chain's customers had not refrained from buying meat products from its outlets nationwide.
"As far as the sale of meat products is concerned, it has not declined even though there are halal concerns. I believe this is because our customers know that Mydin is extremely strict in our halal certification processes and they know that all our products are 100 per cent halal.
"We can also assure our customers they can buy from us without worrying if it is halal or not simply because the meats that we sell are self-imported from abattoirs certified by the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim). So, there should not be any concern at all. We have also put up a statement on our social media platforms to assure consumers we import directly from reliable parties and only buy from halal sources. Everything we sell is halal," he told the New Straits Times.
Ameer was commenting on reports on the activities of a meat cartel which had imported non-certified meat into the country and later passed it off as halal beef for sale in the local market.
Muslim consumers and traders' groups have since urged consumers to refrain from buying imported meat until questions over the halal status are resolved.
Ameer urged Jakim, the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry and the Department of Quarantine and Inspection Services (Maqis) to take swift and severe action.
He said his main concern was to protect consumers and added that the relevant authorities should go all out to stop the production of counterfeit meat packages as well as halal logos.
Unsuspecting consumers, he said, would be unable to identify bona fide halal logos from fake ones if they were being sold by the cartel to its middlemen.
"They (the cartel) ciplak (counterfeit) the packaging and halal logo so that it looks like the authentic ones certified by the authorities. From a consumer standpoint, there would be no way one could differentiate or check on the discrepancies. The authorities have to advise consumers to be wary of what they are buying. Obviously, the scandal happened because documents were forged and someone in authority had closed one eye to allow it to happen and for so long." added Ameer.
KK Super Mart founder and KK Group of Companies' executive chairman Datuk Seri Dr K.K. Chai said they had not been impacted by the scandal.
"We have minimal beef-based products at our KK Freshmart outlets and people are still buying from us. We only bring in halal products from trusted suppliers as we conduct stringent checks on their backgrounds and their business records before allowing them into our stores." he said.
Kuan Kar Chin, whose company SC Kuan Enterprise Sdn Bhd has been supplying frozen meat to NSK Trade City for over 20 years, said the supply chain had not been disrupted because of the scandal.
"We still supply to NSK and I understand that sales at NSK are normal. We import beef and buffalo meat from four to five wholesalers from India, New Zealand and Australia. Since the news broke, I have double-checked with my wholesalers on the halal status of the meats and they were able to produce the necessary certifications to assured me that their products were genuine."
The NST recently front-paged a report on senior government officers working with a cartel to smuggle non-certified meat into Malaysia and passing it off as halal-certified products. Believed to have been active for over 40 years, the cartel imported meat from non-halal certified slaughterhouses in several countries.
Once shipped into Malaysia, the meat would be taken to a warehouse where it would be mixed with halal-certified meat and repacked with fake halal logos before entering the market.
On Monday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had ordered a special report on the scandal to be submitted to the government. Muhyiddin's instruction was disclosed by Maqis director-general Saiful Yazan Alwi during the Ruang Bicara programme on Bernama TV.