KARACHI, Sept 25: Pakistan faces no threat from China’s tainted milk that has made headlines in the international media after the toxic milk sickened over 53,000 children in China.

A random market survey of main wholesale markets, Jodia Bazaar and Marriott Road, carried out by Dawn on Thursday revealed that the adulterated Chinese milk had not been imported.

Sohail Janoo, a leading milk importer, told Dawn that China basically produced butter fat milk while Pakistan imported bulk of vegetable fat milk from Ireland, which holds 80 per cent share, followed by Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden etc.

He recalled that Chinese milk imports had been suspended for the last two years. “There might be some quantity of Chinese milk stored somewhere but chances are remote as it expires in two years,” he added. Besides, Chinese milk has never been accepted by the Pakistanis.

He said that China had never been a big exporter of milk rather it had to import it from various countries. “So there is not question of any imports of toxic milk from the neighboring country”.

On the overall situation of vegetable milk imports, Sohail said that the country used to consume 1,000 tons a month before June this year.

But after the budget 2008-09, the government had increased the customs duty to 30 from 20 per cent. To curtail the import of luxurious items, the government had further increased its import duty to 50 per cent from 30 per cent.

After June 2008, the legal imports had restricted to 500 tons from 1,000 tons. In the last one month, the import had further restricted to 100-200 tons, he said.