Adoption of Advanced Technology in Poultry Meat Production: Perspectives on the Critical Need from Brunei Stakeholders

Abstract

Halal poultry technology such as machineries that include life birds handling, slaughtering tools, scalding and plucking machine, evisceration, pre-cooling, cutting and packaging produce efficiency in poultry meat production. A lot of poultry slaughterhouses worldwide has adopted technology in their companies. However, in Brunei, technology usage has not been embraced fully by all slaughterhouses except the commercial companies. Therefore, this research aims to investigate if the speed, safety, quality and Halal aspects of poultry meat production in Brunei are improved by the help of advanced technology as well as other related aspects as to meet the increasing demand of poultry meat supply. Additionally, the research also aims to identify the level of desire of slaughterhouse owners in Brunei to invest in advanced technology for their service. To achieve these objectives, a qualitative approach was used. An interview was conducted with a few government and private sectors who are involved in the poultry meat production in Brunei. The results of the research showed that technology contributed to the improvement of poultry meat production in Brunei which can be seen in a number of aspects such as improvement in term of speed, safety, quality and cleanliness with an assistance from manual handling and practice. Moreover, the need for technological adoption is also highlighted on its contribution during a disease outbreak and as a way to tackle increasing demand for poultry meat production. It was also found that the owners of local poultry slaughterhouses have the desire to invest further in advanced technology as a way to improve their service. Nevertheless, it is hoped that future research could broaden the term of technology including robotic and artificial intelligent aspect as a few of the companies have shown interest on them.