Australian sheep issue: Iran voices concern over meat import from Pakistan

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The much debated and unresolved issue of importing infected sheep from Australia has started falling heavily on the country’s economy as Iran has shown its concerns over meat import from Pakistan. Iran which is the major importer of meat from Pakistan, is much concerned about the fresh development about the health of animals imported from Australia, sources told Business Recorder. Through letters and emails, the concerned authorities and importers from the neighboring country have started asking exporters and government agencies here about the quality of meat being imported to Tehran. A ban or restriction on imports may be imposed if the issue was not resolved immediately, sources feared. The reactions were as a result of reports suggesting the recently imported Australian sheep were infected with contagious bacteria. This was the first reaction made by international buyers of Pakistani meat. Pakistan, sources feared, may also face same reaction from other Middle Eastern countries affecting the over all live stock and meat industry. Pakistan was exporting meat (beef, mutton and camel meat) worth over $ 125 million during the last couple of years. The meat industry was facing currently major crisis since a growth in exports of the value added products were recorded previously. According to sources at Ministry of National Food Security and Research over 9,500 exotic animals, 318,768 semen doses and 4,300 embryos of high yielding animals have been imported last year. According to sources, over $ 60 million worth of frozen meat was being exported to Gulf countries after processing from eight slaughterhouses. Five of these are in Lahore and three in Karachi. The country had exported about 23,855 tonnes of meat worth $ 74.4 million during 2008-09. It had also exported around 94,000 animals to Afghanistan, amounting to $ 12.35 million. In 2008-09, meat production stood at 2.242 million tonnes. Though India was the leading meat exporter of the region, but it was not exporting beef, leaving a large potential market to Pakistan that should be exploited by country’s exporters. Pakistan Meat Processor Exporter Association had earlier estimated that annual beef production of the country was 1.549 million tonnes, mutton 0.587 million tonnes and poultry production was 0.106 million tonnes. Beef contributes almost 50 percent of total meat exports of the country, while mutton’s share was around 23 percent and poultry was 17 percent.