A long hauling matter raised by meat concerned sections has finally and seemingly resolved by the union government when it drops ‘Halal’ word from its “Red meat manual”. Prior to it according to Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) had a terminology ‘Halal’ stating in the manual and certification for the same was required when dealing Red meat in the country. People who had fought a long campaign against this has praised the removal mentioning as ‘first step’.
APEDA later on cleared the claims about government having the role in formulation that “It is a requirement by a majority of the importing countries/Importers. Halal Certification agencies are accredited directly by respective importing countries. No government agency has any role in this,”
While the earlier Red Meat Manual of the APEDA, which handles agri-exports under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said “animals are slaughtered strictly according to halal method to meet the requirement of Islamic countries”, it now says “the animals are slaughtered according to the requirement of importing country/importer”.
It has also deleted these lines: “The animals are slaughtered by halal system under strict vigilance of (a) recognised and registered Islamic body as per the tenets of Islamic Shariyat. The certificate for halal is issued by the representative of registered Islamic body under whose supervision the slaughter is conducted in order to meet the requirement of (the) importing country
Reuters also said that ‘Halal’ terminology made it compulsory for any kind of meat export previously.
Countries who are importers of red meat from India made it compulsory. The present stats of export of buffalo meat from India are like In FY 2019-20, India exported Rs 22,668.48 crore worth of buffalo meat, with the chief buyers being Vietnam (Rs 7,569.01 crore), Malaysia (Rs 2,682.78 crore), Egypt (Rs 2,364.89 crore), Indonesia (Rs 1,651.97 crore), Saudi Arabia (Rs 873.56 crore), Hong Kong (Rs 857.26 crore), Myanmar (Rs 669.20 cr) and the UAE (Rs 604.47 cr). Most of the exports to Vietnam and Hong Kong get diverted to China.
Sections, which had cited the APEDA manual to say the government seemed to be promoting halal meat, called the change “the first step in the right direction”.
Sections concerned have also asked Union minister of civil Aviation Hardeep Puri, to forbid serving ‘Halal’ meat on Air India flights.
The people who are in the business also cited the loss of jobs by a huge population where they are excluded from dealing the Halal meat because of the requirements of slaughter houses.