KUCHING, Jan 25: Sarawak Economic Development Corporation’s (SEDC) investment in two cattle ranches in Australia has generated profit through its beef export to several neighboring countries.
TVS had quoted SEDC General Manager Datu Abdul Hadi Abdul Kadir in saying that the livestock from the two farms with an area of 732,000 acres (Rosewood) and 100,000 acres (Camor Plains) respectively have produced beef which has been exported to the Philippines, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
According to him, SEDC’s investments also include the halal meat market industry with some of the cattle shipped from Darwin to several halal slaughterhouses in the Karabungan Farm of Miri and Siburan Halal Complex here for the local market.
Abdul Hadi added that all these local slaughterhouses had been awarded halal certification in 2020, which is exactly one year since livestock farms in Australia were opened.
However, the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certificate, he said, was only obtained in 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“At that time, due to Covid-19, we didn’t have Hazard (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point or HACCP), so we couldn’t get HACCP certification for our factory.
“People in Kuala Lumpur have asked when we can bring our beef over because they know the quality of SEDC’s beef,” TVS quoted Abdul Hadi as saying.
Abdul Hadi was speaking at a collaboration event between SEDC and PayNet which took place at the SEDC Tower here yesterday (Jan 24).
The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), according to Abdul Hadi, had also confirmed that the SEDC-owned factory is a reference to eco-friendly livestock farming and slaughtering practices.
In 2019, Democratic Action Party (DAP) Pending lawmaker Violet Yong called on SEDC and the Sarawak government to publish in full its investment in a cattle ranch located in Camor Plains in Darwin.
Yong told both SEDC and the State government that there was no point in evading the issue any longer as ABC News had confirmed that SEDC paid AUD20 million for the cattle property on the floodplains east of Darwin. — DayakDaily
