Livestock export: Leather industry, meat sellers demand ban

Say government’s reluctance is hurting consumers as well.

KARACHI:

Meat merchants and representatives of the leather industry said on Thursday that in the post-floods scenario, the government should ban animal exports, especially to Iran and Afghanistan, to prevent shortages of meat and animal skins.

Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club, the leather industry representatives said there was a continuous decline in the availability of skins because of an acute shortage of animals in the country.

“Live animal exports and smuggling in the garb of exports are top reasons why Pakistan faces a shortage of animals today,” Pakistan Tanners Association (South Zone) Chairman Aziz Ahmed said.

He said the total skins collection in the country in 2010 was half of the figure for 2006. “The industry got over 17 million skins in 2006, 15 million in 2007, 13 million in 2008, nine million in 2009 and only eight million in 2010.”

He said the decline in skins availability was almost equal to the fall in Pakistan’s leather exports in last few years.

Floods in recent years, coupled with the increase in live animal exports and smuggling, have affected the growth of animal population in Pakistan. This has affected the leather and meat industries.

“Meat prices in Iran and Afghanistan are higher than those in Pakistan, which encourages smuggling to these countries,” Ahmed said.

The demand of the leather industry to ban live animal exports is not new. Recently, the Ministry of Commerce moved a summary to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to ban live animal exports after a large number of animals perished in the floods.

Sources in the leather industry say the ECC overlooked the summary after the opposition from the Ministry of Livestock.

Meat merchants allege the government has not banned live animal exports because “influential people” are involved in this business.

Addressing the press conference, Meat Merchants Association President Kamran Qureshi said the government’s reluctance to ban live animal exports was hurting the meat industry as well as local consumers who had to buy expensive meat.

“There is a visible connection between the shortage of animals and the doubling of meat prices in last five years,” he said, adding that most animals were smuggled to Afghanistan and Iran in the guise of the legal export business.

Talking to the media, Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (South Zone) Chairman Muhammad Danish Khan said the drop in skins collection had affected the exports of all types of leather products.

“Leather garments and gloves have witnessed a decline in last few years because of the shortage of raw material in the country,” he said.

Leather exporters believe the industry is now importing 20 per cent raw material from regional countries, which has increased the total cost of production in Pakistan.





Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2011.