KARACHI, Nov 11: Tannery owners have said the slaughtering of sacrificial animals this year has plunged sharply while the administrator of Super Highway Mandi has claimed that the buying of animals by people has slightly improved.

S.M. Naseem, Chairman of Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA), linked the decline in slaughtering to high prices of sacrificial animals. According a PTA survey, he said, there was a 50 per cent decline in sheep and goat skins and 10-15 per cent in cow hides in the country.

He said the estimated slaughtering of sacrificial animals (cow, sheep, goat) ranged between five and 5.5 million this year, compared to seven million last year. Mr Naseem attributed the decline to smuggling of live animals to neighbouring countries, death of 0.5 million animals in recent floods and export of live animals under special quota.

He said the tannery and leather industry would be affected by the decline in animal slaughtering which would result in low production of leather, reduced export earnings and unemployment in the industry.

He said the average price of goat/sheep skins this year was between Rs600 and Rs650, compared to Rs400 last year. The price of cow and buffalo hides ranged between Rs3,000 and Rs3,500, compared to Rs2,000-2,300 last year.

Mr Naseem said tanneries had got 30 million goats/sheep skins and 20-25 million cows and buffalo hides last year, but these were expected to decline by 25 per cent year this. He rejected a perception that animal slaughtering had improved in Karachi and said that slaughtering of big animals might have increased, but that of small animals had plunged sharply.

The PTA chief said the leather industry was already facing turmoil because of prolonged loadshedding, high prices of gas and petrol and smuggling/export of live animals. He urged the government to take measures to control smuggling of live animals and impose a complete ban on export of live animals to reduce milk and meat prices.

Super Highway cattle market administrator Shahab Ali told Dawn that sacrifice of animals showed a slight improvement than last year, but it had plunged when compared to four to five years back.

He said 182,000 cows were registered in the market this year and 7,000-8,000 of them remained unsold. Last year 173,000 cows were sold out. A total of 128,000 goats were registered in the market this year and about 8,000 of them remained unsold. In 2010, 120,000 goats were sold out.

Traders brought 1,400 camels in the market this year, compared to 1,100 last year.

Mr Shahab said that if sale of animals from makeshift markets and stalls across Karachi was taken into account, the number of sacrificial animals would be much higher. “We can safely say that 10,000 cows and goats each were sold from the makeshifts and stalls in Karachi.”

He recalled that the Super Highway market had witnessed the arrival of 150,000-175,000 goats and 197,000 cows some four to five years ago.