Chinese companies are to import more meat from Pakistan, said Umair Ahmad Khan, representative of Hardoi Livestock and Meat Company. "These days, the volume of meat export is about to go up after China allowed Pakistani meat to be imported. The Chinese government has given some specifications and standard operating procedures for boiled and heat-treated meat," he said at Pakistan's first International Food and Agriculture Exhibition held recently. The event attracted more than 400 delegations from 55 countries, while China has the largest delegation participating in the Expo. "Many Chinese enterprises want to import meat, chili and other products from Pakistan and are ready to set up industrial units there," said Ghulam Qadir, Commercial Counselor of Pakistan Embassy in Beijing, who led a delegation of around 110 Chinese representatives from Beijing and neighboring provinces to the expo.

"China had agreed to import meat from Pakistan, Gwadar Pro reported on Thursday. He added. At the expo, meat booths attracted a lot of Chinese visitors. "Pakistan is one of the world's leading cattle and buffalo producers. We have the second-largest population of buffaloes and sixth-largest cattle population in the world. We can produce high-quality buffalo meat."  Umair Ahmad Khan, who used to target Gulf States, Middle Eastern states and Central Asian countries as the main market, is now trying to export heat-treated meat, frozen beef and boneless meat to China. "Chinese government has recently concluded an agreement that heat-treated meat from Pakistan can be imported to China. We have a big potential market in China if our producers can produce such standard-compliant meat."

"About 80 percent of the visitors to the expo were Chinese. Since they also knew that Pakistan had been allowed to export meat to China, a lot of them took interest in our products," said Mirza Waqas Baig, another meat exhibitor from Organic Meat Company. "China is probably the largest meat consumer in the world. There was no approval in Pakistan to export to China before, now there is approval. We would like to cater to this market and increase our exports there. "He added The event witnessed $410 million worth of deals and the signing of 10 MoUs. Data shows that Pakistan's exports to China are improving gradually.  Export of meat is expected to play a key role in achieving Pakistan's export target of USD10 billion to China in the future.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP) — Pak-China