October 7, 2003
Malaysia's Sabah & Sarawak Chosen as Main Centres to Implement Pig Farming Areas
Sabah and Sarawak states of Malaysia have been selected by the Malaysian authorities as the main centres for the implementation of Pig Farming Areas (PFAs) in the country.
State Agriculture and Food Industry Minister, Datuk Abdul Rahim Ismail said the two states were picked because both had been recognised as being free from major infectious animal diseases.
"The Federal government has discussed the matter with the State government and is now waiting for us to get a suitable site for the creation of a PFA main centre in Sabah," he said.
The State government is however still looking for a suitable area for that purpose, he said, expressing confidence that it will materialise soon. The PFAs, which are under creation in each state in the country, is aimed at solving the various perennial problems relating to poor management of pig farms and abattoirs especially in several states in the peninsula.
Abdul Rahim said this when officiating at the groundbreaking ceremony for the proposed Meat Technology Centre of the Department of Veterinary Services and Animal Industry (Dovsai), a department under the Ministry, at its construction site in Kinarut here on 27th September.
The proposed centre costing about RM7 million which will accommodate four facilities, namely, an abattoir, meat technology lab, butcher training school and tannery processing facilities. These are scheduled for completion by the year 2005.
The project will be constructed with the cooperation of a construction company from Australia, which will also equip the centre with the advanced technology from the same country. The centre, expected to be the first of its kind in the country, will have the capacity to slaughter about 100 ruminant animals a day.
Also present at the event were his Assistant Ministers Datuk Siringan Gubat and Datuk Dr Patawari Patawe, Ministry Permanent Secretary Datuk Abidin Madingkir, State Dovsai Director Haji Awang Sahak Salleh, Papar District Officer Wong Foo Tin, the Crown Agents International Limited for Asia-Pacific Region Regional Director Mike Byfield, Brian Barker of the BBI International in Queensland and James Scott of the Rural Industry and Mechanical Installation in Darwin, among others.
Meanwhile, Abdul Rahim said a total of 16 Key Production Areas (KPAs) would be created in Sabah. Each of it will be built with two centralised, modern and environment-friendly abattoirs each to cater for ruminant livestock and pigs.
"All the abattoirs or meat processing centres, which will cater for the requirements of all districts put under a KPA, will be built according to international requirements," he said.
"This is not like the present ones in some districts, especially those meant for pig farming, which contain unhealthy elements and are not properly managed, thus causing a lot of problems," he added.
Currently, there are a total of 15 abattoirs catering for ruminant livestock and 8 pig abattoirs owned by the government in Sabah. Besides that, there are also about 33 other private-owned abattoirs and livestock-based food processing centres currently operating in the State.
"The Ministry has decided not to continue defending all the present poor conditions at these government abattoirs and we are going to improve it further using approaches that include creating new abattoirs or centres and upgrading the facilities at the present ones in order to cut cost, among others.
"The Ministry will also make sure that the private-owned abattoirs and livestock-based food processing centres comply with international requirements," said Abdul Rahim.
He is confident that the Meat Technology Centre, together with its various related programmes, will have a huge impact as a catalyst for the development of the State's meat industry, which is one of the sub-sectors envisaged to contribute towards the overall development of the agriculture-based food industry.
