NFC venturing into Singapore absurd, says PKR

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli said National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) chairperson Salleh Ismail's explanation that the local market is too small hence the need to expand overseas, does not make any sense.

This is because NFC's current beef output is way behind the target set by the government, one of the criteria for awarding the RM250 million soft loan to the corporation, said Rafizi.

Comparing the output target stated in the official website of veterinary service department with NFC's current production, Rafizi found that the company's output in 2010 only met 0.8 percent of the department's target in 2009.

According to Rafizi, NFC had slaughtered 1,914 cows from 2008 to 2010, producing 400 tonnes beef annually (assuming every cow slaughtered gives 200kg of meat), but the government's target in 2009 was 50,000 tonnes.

"NFC has no right to talk about new market abroad as long as it has not met the target to supply 40 percent of domestic market, because that is the purpose of setting up NFC.

"Salleh's statement that the local market is too small for NFC output is a lie that insults the intelligence of Malaysians," said the PKR leader.

Rafizi (right) reiterated that he is still awaiting NFC's official statement explaining why the government loan was used to invest in overseas businesses unrelated to the purpose of the loan.

Yesterday Salleh, the husband of Family, Women, and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, told online news portal The Malaysian Insider that NFC was building up the market in Singapore and was eyeing Indonesia next.

He said this was necessary as the National Feedlot Centre would produce 78,000 tonnes of beef by 2015 once its abattoir becomes operational, more than what the Malaysian market needed.

"When we have this many tonnes of beef, the Malaysian market will not buy everything so we have to find other places to sell," he was quoted as saying.

However, Salleh declined to comment on Rafizi's allegation that his family has misused the soft loan to open a premier supermarket in Singapore, only saying that NFC would issue a statement soon to "explain (the matter) in the proper context".