Daily Times

With a huge potential to export meat, Pakistan is all set to start exporting boiled meat to the Chinese market in the near future, said Ghulam Qadir, Commercial Counsellor, Pakistan Embassy, Beijing on Saturday.

“China had agreed to import meat from Pakistan during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Beijing in November last. Now, both sides are in the process of exchanging documents and hopefully, the agreement would be implemented in a month,” he told APP.

He informed that before its export, the meat would be boiled up to 70 degrees centigrade to make it foot and mouth disease (FMD) free.

“Three processing plants of Fauji, Tata and Green set up in Karachi have already been approved by the relevant authorities of China. These plants have good reputation and capacity”, Qadir added.

He stressed a need to work on the value chain and adopt corporate forming to enhance quality to increase its exports.

“The potential investors in Pakistan should utilize modern techniques and improve processing facilities to grab this opportunity,” Qadir urged.

Responding to a question, he said that Pakistan’s current meat export was about 66,000 tons annually but the Chinese market’s demand was huge.

He informed that one Chinese company had a plan to import 50,000 tons of meat but “we don’t want to see a shortage of beef or high prices of this food item in Pakistan”.

The commercial counsellor opined that Pakistan could increase meat production through investment, technology and corporate forming.

According to an export, Pakistan’s fruits, vegetables and meat meet international export standards.

Data shows that Pakistan’s exports to China are improving gradually. The livestock population that currently exists in Pakistan is for dual purposes, dairy and meat, whereas competing livestock exporting economies have developed different breeds for dairy and meat purposes.

The export of meat would play a key role in achieving Pakistan’s export target of US$10 billion to China in the future.