KARACHI – Every day around 1,000 live animals especially goats and cows are being smuggled to Afghanistan and Iran. The traders buy animals from different parts of the country, transport them to the NWFP or Balochistan, and smuggle them to the bordering countries. This organised smuggling of live animals is in addition to the illegal sale of animals to traders in border areas of Afghanistan and Iran by the shepherds, living in areas adjacent to these two countries. This was disclosed by Meat One CEO Kamran Khalili in an interview with Pakistan Today.
The government should discourage smuggling of live animals as it could create shortage of meat in the country and ignite price hike while the adequate availability of livestock would lead to increase in export of meat from Pakistan, said Khalili, who is the country’s leading meat exporter to the UAE. “Unregulated trade is always counterproductive for economy. We as exporters not only bring valuable foreign exchange to the country but also create employment opportunities and pay taxes and duties to government, while the smugglers are hurting the interest of the country,” he added.
The government should introduce corporate farming of livestock to enhance animals’ production in a systematic way, he said, adding that the government can sit with the stakeholders to firm up incentives that can promote corporate farming in this field.
Meat One is considering to establish a training institute for the training of butchers and meat sellers in basic requirements and the dos and don’ts of meat-selling business, he said, adding this is a serious matter as one cannot afford to put others’ lives in danger just for mere profits.
Meat One has been established with a vision to offer Karachites a meat buying experience at par with international standards. Citizens of Karachi, for the very first time, are experiencing a radically different and pleasant way of purchasing fresh raw and marinated meat products in beef, mutton and chicken, Khalili said.
A subsidiary of Al Shaheer Corporation, which is one of the leading meat exporters of Pakistan, Meat One currently has four functional meat outlets in Karachi. “At the moment, our three outlets are operating in DHA while the fourth one is in North Nazimabad,” he said.
“The impression that we are targeting the elite class only is unfounded because we want to spread our geographical presence in all parts of the city regardless of the socio-economic background of the area,” said Khalili, adding that meat is something that every person buys and eats regardless of their economic status. “Since our meat products are competitive and we are offering a matchless, healthy and conducive environment to the citizens for meat purchase, we are targeting everyone who buys and eats meat in Karachi,” he added.
Meat One would soon launch its outlet in Bahadurabad, after which new stores in Mohammad Ali Society, Malir Cantt and Gulshan-e-Iqbal are planned within the next few months. “Ultimately we want to establish as many as 25 meat stores in Karachi by the end of year 2012,” said Khalili. He said Meat One is investing approximately 12 to 15 million rupees on every new store and it takes around 2 to 3 months to establish a state-of-the-art outlet as all equipments are bought from abroad and a renowned architectural firm builds the outlet. “We don’t compromise on quality and that’s the value we stand for today.
Our outlets offer a clean, friendly environment where customers can choose from a wide array of different cuts prepared by Meat One’s professional butchers. “We are not here at all to hurt the business interest of traditional butchers. All we want is that citizens of Karachi should get hygienic and contamination-free meat. Unfortunately, the meat that we get in our country is often infected with bacteria, lead, mercury and viruses due to the fact that there are no set rules and procedures while the people involved in slaughtering business are not aware of the basic requirements and good practices of this business.
We want to force them to think positively and offer hygienic and quality meat to the citizens. “I know it would take time but we have taken the first step in the right direction and we are confident that others would follow our path, which will ultimately benefit the citizens of Karachi,” said Khalili. The parent company of Meat One, Al Shaheer Corporation specialises in exporting free range grass-fed beef and mutton to the Middle East, including Dubai, Kuwait, Oman and Muscat, said the Meat One CEO, adding ‘our meat exports end up on the shelves of some of the leading international retailers and hypermarket in the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Karachites consume approximately 1,460 metric tonnes of meat daily in which beef accounts for 360 tonnes, mutton 280 tonnes while poultry accounts for 820 tonnes, Khalili said.
He said the potential in this sector is huge and all that is needed is some support from the government. The country has enough livestock to meet domestic consumption and export of meat is merely 2 percent of the local consumption, he added.
Internationally, meat prices are going up and the only solution to keep the prices in control is farming at corporate level. There is a dire need of establishing special greasing zones in the country for exploring the full potential of this sector, Khalili said.
Pakistan is the only country in the region which can export beef in substantial quantity as although India has tremendous growth of livestock, but they don’t slaughter and export beef due to religious obligations, he said, adding that the Indians only slaughter buffalos and that too of inferior meat quality, thus, providing Pakistani meat products an edge over them. Another advantage is the fact that Pakistan, India and China are the only countries that have goats. The rest of the world either has sheep or lambs, thus having an unlimited export potential of mutton from Pakistan.
