NFC NOT A ‘MESS’?

National Feedlot Corp is not a ‘mess’, says chairman

GEMAS: Denying that the National Feedlot Corp was “a mess”, its executive chairman Datuk Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail said it was on track to produce 60,000 head of cattle by 2015.

He said NFC had in fact met its target for 2010.

According to him, the Auditor- General report had said NFC had only met 41.1% of its target for 2010 “because there is a difference between having the cattle and slaughtering it for meat.“

“Before we slaughter the cattle we have to ensure the market is there and we have to wait for the halal certification,” he said at a press conference at NFC on Thursday.

He said the cattle was imported from Australia and fattened up to about 500 kg to 600kg in 3 to 5 months before it is slaughtered.

As for the NFC restaurant Meatworks' in Mont Kiara, he said it was to showcase the meat.

“People do not believe there is good quality beef produced in Malaysia because the beef from the cows from Kelantan are “kurus kering” (thin) with little meat.

“We chose Mont Kiara because it's cosmopolitan and the response was very good. The bosses at Tesco, Carrefour, Jusco ate there and placed orders straight away for our meat,” he said.

Dr Salleh said NFC had 150 client companies and one of its biggest clients was Jusco and Giant and Cold Storage.

He denied that NFC supplied meat to exclusive restaurants saying that 46% of its sales were to the wet market, 20% to hypermarkets, 22% went to processing meat for burgers and patties and only 11% were to hotels, restaurants and catering.

Dr Salleh also justified NFC purchase of two condos in Bangsar, saying it was a sound investment.

NFC had bought each condo for RM6.9mil each. And each condo was rented out at RM70,000 a month giving NFC a yield of RM900,000 each which was a 12.9% return on investment.

He said if they had put the money in a fixed deposit instead, they would have only received 2.6% to 3.25%.

Also present was his lawyer Datuk Seri Dr Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

He added that police were investigating NFC former finance manager and sales manager who resigned under suspicious circumstances.