Traders slam plan to end poultry slaughtering at markets

 

A local meat suppliers interest group chief Azizur Rahman (right) showing the press the difference between freshly slaughtered and frozen poultry.

GEORGE TOWN: Poultry traders in Penang are up in arms over the state government’s plan to end slaughtering at wet markets and for a foreign entity to centralise the supply of poultry, saying it was a monopoly that would jeopardise the livelihood of hundreds of local traders.

The traders say that the monopoly is a non-solution for a purported problem of hygiene at wet markets. They also said their investment in machines to process slaughtered birds would go to waste.

They urged the state government to reconsider the city council’s move before it is implemented on March 1.

“Our customers come to the market for fresh poultry with bargainable prices, not frozen meat straight out of the freezer overnight,” said Azizur Rahman, head of a local meat suppliers interest group.

The Penang Island City Council is reported to be building a poultry distribution centre in Batu Lanchang and would slowly phased out the slaughtering of poultry at wet markets.

Ramesh K, a trader of 20 years, questioned the freshness of the poultry slaughtered at the hub. He said he had a personal best of slaughtering over 1,000 fresh birds a day and can’t imagine the state of the poultry by the time it reached his store from the hub.

“That’s without considering that dozens of other traders will be waiting in line with me for our supply,” he said.

Fellow trader Yakob Abdul Razak called the plan to end slaughtering at markets was impractical.

“Considering how much demand there is, their freezers will likely be overstuffed with more poultry than they can distribute in time. Will that really mean less bacteria than the poultry we air out fresh?” he said

Another trader Lee Chee Kwang said his investment of RM50,000 in machinery to slaughter chicken would go down the drain. “There are about 250 of us here in Penang state. Think about how much that costs in total.”

Azizur Rahman said the group strongly objects to the MBPP’s plans, and had reservations about the lack of quality assurance and transparency.

Citing the recent scandal of a cartel passing off meat as “halal”, he said he could not sell something that he could’t vouch for. “We only know the meat is legit when we’ve slaughtered it ourselves.”

He said that he and his fellow vendors were invited for a “discussion” at Komtar (the state government’s offices) last year. “However, it wasn’t a discussion. It was them telling us that they’re bringing in a foreign company to slaughter and distribute the poultry for us to sell in freezers.”

He also said that the state government only offered them one other alternative.

“It’s either we take the chilled poultry from this single distributor, or we find a vendor with all three certifications from Veterinary Health Mark (VHM), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), and the Islamic development department (JAKIM).”

He urged the government to instead establish slaughterhouses in each district and license poultry traders to slaughter the poultry themselves. “If hygiene really is the problem,” he said. “Then give us a clean environment to trade in.”

He told the press that he hopes the government will reconsider this move before it is implemented on March 1.

In a letter to the press last year, Consumers Association of Penang president Mohideen Abdul Kader had called on MBPP to introduce facilities enabling poultry traders to continue slaughtering poultry the traditional way but cleanly and hygienically. - FMT