June 1, 2010

Malaysia works at self-sufficiency in meat production

 

The creation of many more "beef valleys" in the country can be seen as the direction towards attaining self-sufficiency for meat.

Apart from the existing 4,000-hectare fully integrated beef valley in Gemas, Negri Sembilan, other states such as Sabah and Sarawak have also indicated their strong interest in setting up similar operation.

However, while waiting for the beef valley projects to fully take off, Malaysia's self-sufficiency for beef is still low, at about 25%. To date, some 103,000 tonnes of beef worth MYR883.9 million (US$268.5 million) were imported annually.

Unlike the successful production of poultry, pork and eggs, Malaysia is still unable to produce sufficient supply of non-poultry meat to cater for its increasing consumption. Chicken meat has the highest self-sufficiency of about 125%, of which there is an excess of 25% which can be exported.

Malaysia is a net exporter of chicken meat and eggs and is self-sufficient in pork requirements.