AT least one large supermarket chain has seen a drop in sales of red meat after the expose on fake halal meat imports.

Aeon Retail Malaysia chief human resource officer and corporate communications director Dr Kasuma Satria said the franchise’s sales of red meat dropped by 40% after media reports exposed the existence of a syndicate, which has been importing meat from non-halal-certified slaughterhouses in several countries to repackage it for sale in Malaysia with fake halal logos.

The drop is most noticeable in Aeon stores in Malay-populated areas, he said, adding that more consumers are showing a preference for local meat instead of imported meat.

“We now see people shifting their demand from imported meat to more local meat.

“This is apparent in stores in Malay-populated areas compared to stores that have predominantly Chinese and Indian customers,” he told The Malaysian Insight. 

Kasuma said the difference was apparent from sales figures for the last week of 2020 compared with the first week of this year.

The issue was first reported by Sinar Harian on December 2, before other media picked it up.

“Comparing figures for those weeks, despite the Christmas period, there was a drop in sales of red meat by 30% to 40%.”

Kasuma said retailers will go by the documentation that comes with the imported meat. 

“We import based on the documentation that says it is certified as halal. We import based on that information.

“But since the scandal was exposed, Aeon is now very cautious with regard to imported meats, especially from the countries that were mentioned.”

These include Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, China, Canada, Colombia, Spain, Ukraine and Mexico, where the syndicate imported meat from slaughterhouses not certified as halal.

“In the long run, the government has to ensure stricter enforcement for imported meat if we are to rebuild consumer trust and confidence,” Kasuma added.

Ameer Ali Mydin, the managing director of Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad, said sales of red meat at Mydin outlets are not badly affected as the chain does not purchase meat from third party suppliers, but from original suppliers.

“We only buy direct from suppliers we trust and who have approval from the relevant authorities, including the Islamic Development Department (Jakim).”

However, Ameer said Putrajaya is not going fast enough to flush out the syndicate members and put a stop to their activities, nor is it working hard enough to regain consumer confidence in existing stock of halal meat sold in the country.

“Malaysians deserve an answer and they deserve to know whether what they are eating now is halal or not. 

“The government needs to assure the public that what we are consuming is halal. If the government can’t ensure that, then they have failed,” said Ameer, who is also president of the Bumiputera Retailers’ Organisation.

The syndicate was uncovered following a raid on a warehouse holding frozen meat in the Senai Industrial Park, Johor, on December 1.

A total of 1,500 tonnes of frozen meat with an estimated value of RM30 million were seized, smuggled through Johor’s seaports.

The warehouse was where fake halal labels and stamps were made for the repackaged meat.

Some of the meat passed off as halal allegedly include kangaroo and horse meat.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is scrutinising the Johor company’s documents for links to enforcement officials.

The Customs Department has also launched an internal probe.

To date, four people are under remand.

Ameer, who is also the vice-president of Malaysian Retailers’ Association, said the government should be doing more to check on retailers of imported red meat, noting that no such actions have been taken to date.

“Besides the raid in the warehouse, the government has not done any check elsewhere to find out how widespread this meat scandal is.

“I assume the government would have obtained records of where the (Johor) company sold meat to and they should be contacting all these retailers to warn them that the meat they are selling might not be halal.

“They must do massive checks on all retailers and it doesn’t matter if they are big players, small players, pasar malam or even pasar pagi because this is where the meats are being sold,” Ameer said.

“The government is not playing its part to help consumers regain confidence. They must act fast because the fasting month is approaching soon (in April) and after that, Hari Raya, when meat consumption will go up.” – January 6, 2021.