e-Bulletin

South African National Halaal
Authority
e-Bulletin

March 2016 :: Jumaadal Ukhra 1437

No. 86

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

OBAMA'S FOWL PLAY

After an absence of almost two decades, poultry from the United States of America is now available in South Africa, following the agreement reached which allows for 65 000 tons to be imported.

In 2000, prohibitive anti-dumping duties were imposed on imports of chicken and thereby closing the door on our market to US products. Last year, however, the administration of President Barack Obama threatened to withhold benefits to South Africa under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Agreement (AGOA) if South Africa did not reopen its market to US chicken, beef and pork. The Obama Administration set a deadline of 15th March for South Africa to fully comply with the agreement on imports of poultry and other meats.

The USA is amongst the largest producers of poultry in the world and recover profits on the popular cuts of chicken sold in the domestic market, paving the way for the cheaper cuts such as head and feet to be dumped outside the USA at prices that cannot be matched by local producers.

The most serious ramifications in the scheme is the Halaal status of the product as poultry produced in the USA is almost without exception machine-slaughtered, which method is also prevalent in most developed countries of Europe and South America. SANHA categorically rejects machine-slaughter as it cannot meet the following conditions:

The act of slaughter must be rendered physically by a Muslim person.
The Tasmiyah (incantation) must be mentioned over every bird during slaughter.
The required vessels viz trachea, oesophagus, the jugular veins and carotid arteries must be severed.

Machine slaughter devoid of human conscience cannot be relied upon to fulfil these requirements.

Our stance on non-acceptability of machine-slaughtered poultry is consistent on local and imported products. We do not reject it for locally approved abattoirs on one hand and quietly issue certificates for imported products on the other.

Furthermore, during our inspections of such plants abroad, huge inadequacies and weaknesses in their “Halaal” programmes were noted and therefore SANHA will not give approval based on the presentation of a “Halaal Certificate” per shipment.

This problem is further compounded by the fact that it becomes impossible for the Muslim consumer to identify the products, since these are brought in as portions and sold to industry for further processing, without the benefit of any labelling on the end product. These items could surface as portions of fried chicken at take outs, meals at restaurants, processed meats such as polony, and cuts from your butcher or retailer.

The community does not need a stark reminder of the television expose in the Orion meat scandal of a few years ago where Haraam products such as kangaroo, buffalo meat and pork were fraudulently labelled and sold as Halaal.

Exercise your consumer right to information and abstain where there is any doubt. Take guidance from the Halaal authorities in whom you have confidence and trust.

Editor