Halal meat problems may threaten markets

Press, 10 December 1983, Page 9

Halal meat problems may threaten markets

PA Wellington Problems over halal meat certification could threaten New Zealand’s important < Middle East meat markets. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have not yet •agreed to the programme ' the Meat Board has set. Other Muslim countries in the Middle East have agreed to the board’s plans. If a solution is hot found to the problem, other countries could be persuaded to Kuwait and U.A.E.’s viewpoint. The problem with Kuwait lies with the certification of . the halal-killed meat. The Kuwaitis want a . group called the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand to carry out the certification. 1 This is not acceptable to

the Meat Board, which wants an independent Muslim organisation, the N.Z.1.M.M., to provide a written undertaking that meat sent to Muslim countries has been Muslimslaughtered. A group from Kuwait visited New Zealand a month ago to discuss the problem, but has not yet made a final decision on the matter, although the Meat Board said it had been offered a number of alternatives.

It seems that the United Arab Emirates may have been drawn into the matter after talking with the Kuwaitis. Next week, a six-man delegation from the United Arab Emirates led by its secretary-general, Mr Jas-

sim Darwesh, will visit New Zealand for talks about the certification of halal slaughter, and slaughter methods. A statement by the board yesterday said that several other countries had decided to accept the N.Z.I.M.M.’s certification, while others had appointed their own nationals to come to New Zealand to certify product for their countries. The board said that it had introduced strict controls to give absolute assurances that all New Zealand meat supplied to Muslim markets was slaughtered according to Muslim requirements. One of the complexities of (halal) Muslim salughter, it said, was that different Muslim people had differing interpretations of the slaughter procedure.