KARACHI, Jan 4: The arrival of smuggled livestock from India has come to a complete halt due to closure of the Pakistan-India border, resulting in a flareup in the prices of beef and mutton which have gone up by Rs10-20 a kg.

Meat sellers predict further price hike in case the borders remain sealed for a long time.

Consumers are now paying Rs80-90 a kg for beef of A-1 quality as compared with Rs70 a kg, and mutton is now being sold at Rs140 a kg as compared with Rs120-130 a kg depending on the area.

Meat traders attribute the price hike to the closure of the Sindh-Rajasthan border because of the fears of war between India and Pakistan.

It could not be known immediately how many goats and cows find way into Pakistan daily from across the border, but meat traders say 50-60 per cent demand for meat in Karachi is met through animals smuggled from India.

“The arrival of animals from India through smuggling has virtually stopped now,” the general secretary of the Meat Merchants Welfare Association Karachi, Iqbal Qureshi, told this reporter on Friday.

As many as 10,000-12,000 goats and 3,000-3,500 cows/oxen were slaughtered daily in Karachi, but now the number had gone down by 2,000 for goats and 500 for cows/oxen, meat traders said.

In view of the shortage of animals commission agents are buying large numbers of goats and cows from wholesalers with the aim of making a fast buck at present and at the time of Eid-ul-Azha. Meat traders said this situation had created shortages in the market, resulting in price increase.

According to the government’s instructions, two days are observed as meatless days in the country, but in Karachi meat sellers observe three meatless days - Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The action committee of the association of meat sellers has decided to close their shops at 3pm from next Thursday as their sales have dropped because of the surge in prices.

A sizable quantity of meat was also being supplied from Karachi to Quetta because of high demand from Afghan refugees. Meat traders of Quetta were buying large numbers of goats, sheep and cows from Sindh and Punjab, and they were willing to pay high prices, meat traders said.

Meat and animals are also being exported to the Middle East and Gulf countries, and meat merchants urged the government to suspend the export till the restoration of normality on the India-Pakistan borders.

There are 5,000-6,000 meat sellers in Karachi and two registered slaughter houses: in Cattle Colony, Landhi, and New Karachi. However, 90-100 unregistered slaughter houses are functioning, with the connivance of government officials, in the city.

The suspension of smuggling of cattle from India will also cause a stir in the leather industry due to a shortage of hides and skins. The leather industry is already struggling to come out of the crisis caused by a lack of orders from the USA and Europe in the peak season after the events of September 11, 2001.

According to the State Bank’s annual report 2000-2001, components of livestock both in terms of population and product showed a positive growth. Countrywide production of cattle rose by 1.8 per cent to 22.4 million as compared to 22m in 1999-2000 while buffalo production surged by 2.6 per cent to 23.3m from 22.7 million. Goat production rose by 3.8 per cent to 49.2m from 47.4m. The production of beef in 2000-2001 stood at 1,010,000 tons from 985,000 tons while mutton production also surged by 2.6 per cent to 666,000 tons from 649,000 tons.

Meat sellers said Pakistan is short of livestock population and no measures have been taken to increase production. “These production figures of livestock are fictitious and based on assumptions,” Iqbal Qureshi said.