Minister, what are you doing? Tajuddin questions lack of meat cartel updates

KUALA LUMPUR – The Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry has been taken to task over the apparent lack of updates on meat cartels in the country.

Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Pasir Salak-BN) today claimed that as deputy agriculture minister (2013-2018), he had worked to prevent cartels or monopolies in the meat import industry.

He added that the prevalence of such cartels prevented Bumiputera businesses from joining the industry. 

“Imports worth (up to) RM2 billion were controlled by two or three companies and (the industry) by syndicates that work with exporters from countries like India and Australia,” he alleged while debating the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Amendment) Bill 2022 today. 

“This happened to the extent that new players who wanted to join (the industry), especially Bumiputera companies, would not be given a chance at all.” 

“Minister, what are you doing?” Tajuddin questioned Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee.

Following a raid conducted by enforcement agencies on a frozen food warehouse in Senai in December 2020, it was reported that senior officers from four government agencies had been working with a cartel specialising in bringing in non-certified meat into the country, passing it off as halal. 

The officers had allegedly received money and, in some cases, women for sex as bribes to turn a blind eye to the cartel, which is said to have been operating for more than 40 years. 

A number of non-governmental organisations had subsequently lodged police reports on the scandal, urging the government to act quickly in response to public concern over the issue. 

Two directors of meat supplier Raihanah Cold Storage Sdn Bhd pleaded not guilty at the Johor Baru sessions court for unauthorised use of the halal logo early the same month. 

Owner Rahman Sheikh Abdullah, 44, and director Raihanah Kasim, 42, pleaded not guilty to the charges after they were read out to the married couple in front of judge Mohamad Haldar Abdul Aziz. – The Vibes, August 1, 2022