ISLAMABAD, Jan 28: The prices of meat in the local market have gone up substantially in a couple of months due to a phenomenal increase in meat exports during the first half of the current financial year.

Figures compiled by the Federal Bureau of Statistics show that Pakistan exported meat worth Rs2.829 billion during the July-December period, as against Rs1.485 billion in the same period in the previous year – an increase of 90.51 per cent.

The quantity also surged by 50.93 per cent to 13,662 metric tons, as against 9,052 tons over the corresponding period last year.

In December last year, the meat export in value and quantity went up by 161 per cent and 115 per cent, respectively. This was the sharpest increase in a single month in the country’s history.

The average price of beef (buffalo) with and without bone rose to Rs170 and Rs210 per kg, respectively from Rs140 and Rs180 per kg two months ago. The price of beef (cow) with bone increased to Rs190 per kg from Rs160.

The price of mutton went up to Rs320 per kg from Rs280.

The deprecation in the value of the rupee in recent months came as a bonanza for businessmen exporting meat to Afghanistan, Iran and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, meat sellers have urged the government to control the export and smuggling of livestock to stabilise prices in the local market.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, All Pakistan Jamiatul Qureshi Meat Welfare Association president Khursheed Ahmad Qureshi said that as many as 22 animal markets in the NWFP, particularly in the Northern Areas and tribal region, had been closed because of the war on terror.

He said the animal market had not been held in Swat for one year because of the military operation. He demanded an immediate ban on export of meat and effective action to end smuggling of livestock.