KARACHI: Despite surging domestic prices, the country exported record 100,194 tonnes of meat and meat preparations in FY23 exceeding the previous peak of 95,648 tonnes recorded in FY21.

As per data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the country earned foreign exchange of $427 million in FY23 versus $331m in FY21. The exporters fetched an average per tonne price (APT) of $4,258 as compared to $3,467 in FY21.

The exports rose 30pc in quantity and 25pc in value when compared with 76,868 tonnes ($341m) in FY22 at an APT of $4,436.

Meat dealers continued to blame higher exports as one of the main reasons for pushing up domestic prices.

As per data from the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), beef with bone (average quality) price is now tagged at Rs600-1,050 per kg against Rs400-700 per kg during June 2021.

The national average price of mutton (average quality) swelled to Rs1,400-2,000 per kg from Rs810-1,350 in June 2021.

In the last 12 years, meat-related exports remained in the range of 56,000-85,000 tonnes.

“Linking increase in local meat prices to exports is a misconception created by the market retailers as 100,000 tonnes of exports is just a consumption of 10 days in Pakistan,” CEO PK Livestock, Saqib Butt told Dawn on Saturday.

The meat exports have reached a saturation point rather than showing any significant jump in the last two years, he said, adding that they can rise manifold if we target Iran and Afghanistan through legal channels.

He said new markets like Egypt have emerged in the last one to two months while exporters are also exploring Jordan and Malaysia.

Mr Butt said Pakistani exporters struggling to compete with African countries as they offer competitive prices for shipments to the Middle East.

He said countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya have set up slaughterhouses in the Middle East where Pakistan exports 98pc of meat and meat preparations out of its total shipments. These countries are giving quite a tough time to local exporters.

In case exporters could not tap new markets like Iran, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Egypt and Jordan then exports are unlikely to record any major boost in FY24, he feared.

He said high food inflation has hit the buying power of people and meat consumption is going down. “I observed that the number of animals slaughtered this year during Eidul Azha is lower than last year due to squeezing purchasing power of people,” he added.

Contrary to this, the Economic Survey FY23 says that cattle, buffalo and goat production soared to 55.5 million, 45m and 84.7m during FY23 from 51.5m, 42.4m and 80.3m in FY21. Beef and mutton production rose to 2,544,000 tonnes and 799,000 tonnes in FY23 from 2,380,000 and 765,000 tonnes in FY21.

Published in Dawn, July 23th, 2023