LAHORE: The sale and purchase of sacrificial animals has picked momentum, entering its final round with arrival of over 550,000 animals at Lahore’s five temporary sale points and the Shahpur Kanjran cattle market— the largest in Punjab.

As Eidul Azha is approaching fast, all the sale points, including the regular one at Shahpur Kanjran, have been witnessing a huge rush of customers since Monday, mainly due to the lowering of temperatures, especially in the evening.

“For the last many days, Lahore, in particular, and other cities in general, had been gripped by a severe heatwave. That is why I didn’t visit the markets earlier. But, today the weather is good and I have come here to buy a sacrificial goat,” a buyer told Dawn at Kahna (LDA City) animal sale point on Tuesday. “But this time, the goats’ rates are too high as the asking price of even a medium-size goat having 40-50kg gross weight ranges from Rs100,000 to Rs150,000,” he wondered.

Besides Shahpur Kanjran market, temporary sale points have been set up (since May 28) at Sports Complex (Adda Rakh Chebeel), LDA City near Sadhar village, Kahna Kachha (Defence Road), Mauza Nain Sukh near Saggian Bridge, Barki Road near Paragon City and Raiwind near Haveli Markaz, opposite spinning mills at Sundar. The aforementioned sale points fall in the jurisdiction of Wagah, Nishtar, Ravi, Cantt and Raiwind tehsils.

Previously, the district administration used to set up temporary sale points in collaboration with the respective zonal/town municipal administrations. But this time, the this task has been assigned to the Punjab Cattle Market Management and Development Company (PCMMDC), which is already managing the permanent cattle markets across Punjab, including Shahpur Kanjran in Lahore.

According to another buyer, the sellers are not ready to reduce their animals’ prices even slightly.

“I came here at Shahpur Kanjran on Monday, but couldn’t find a calf at a reasonable price. The asking price of a calf having 200kg or so gross weight is over Rs250,000,” he said.

On the other hand, a seller from the south Punjab termed the animals’ prices reasonable, citing the high rates of fodder and other animal feeds (Wanda, Khal etc). “We look after our animals whole year, and feed them well to make them healthy. We also spend on their medication and vaccination etc. But the buyers are not ready to pay us a good price,” the seller at Shahpur Kanjran deplored. To a question, he said animals can also be sold on the basis of their live weight and the rate is Rs2,000 per kg for a goat and Rs1,200kg for a calf.

The PCMMDC in charge for sale points, Mr Jazib Saeed, says that all the five temporary points are currently housing roughly 150,000 calves, 250,000 goats and 3,000 camels, while Shahpur Kanjran has 50,000 calves, 100,000 goats and 5000-6000 camels. He admitted that the prices of all animals, except camels, are very high. “Previously, the calves’ prices were reasonable, but this time, these have also shot through the roof, forcing many buyers to go for goats. Therefore, the goat prices are likely to rise further during the next couple of days, and calves’ may decline,” he explained.

He said PCMMDC teams are closely monitoring operational affairs of the sale points. “So far we have no complaints of serious nature,” he claimed, adding that the temporary sale points will be functional till the third day of Eid. However, Shahpur Kanjran market would resume its routine business after Eid, like other permanent markets across Punjab.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2025