‘Where’s your beef?’ Rafizi asks Salleh

NFC had no right to talk about exploring new market, including in Indonesia, as long as the target to supply 40 percent of domestic market was not met.

(Harakah Daily) – National Feedlot Corporation executive chairman Mohamad Salleh Ismail’s justification  that the limited size of the local market was the reason for the company’s venturing into the supermarket business in Singapore has been described as insult to intelligence by PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli.

Following Rafizi’s revelation that Salleh and his two children were owners of soon-to-open Farmhouse supermarket at an uptown area in the republic, the husband of Wanita UMNO chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil argued that the move was necessary as by 2015, the National Feedlot Centre would be producing 78,000 tonnes of beef, a surplus in the local market.

“When we have this many tonnes of beef, the Malaysian market will not buy everything so we have to find other places to sell. We don’t have a contract with the government (to sell beef)… We only have a contract to slaughter the cows. Where do you think we are going to sell this?” Salleh told the The Malaysian Insider.

Rafizi however said the present beef output of the feedlot centre at 400 tonnes a year (based on the average of 1,914 cows slaughtered with each 200kg net weight of meat) was way off the annual target of 50,000 tonnes set by the government’s veterinary service department.

“It was merely 8 percent, or 6 cows a day. The difference is like heaven and earth,” he jibed.

As such, Rafizi said the NFC had no right to talk about exploring new market, including in Indonesia as mentioned by Salleh, as long as the target to supply 40 percent of domestic market was not met.

“Because that is the purpose of setting up NFC. In fact, the statement by Salleh that the local market is too small to fit for NFC’s production is a lie and an insult to the intelligence of Malaysians,” he added.