State-of-the-art slaughterhouse being built at Shahpur Kanjran

State-of-the-art slaughterhouse being built at Shahpur Kanjran near the provincial metropolis has entered in its completion stage and may start providing fresh and hygienically slaughtered meat to people of Lahore from December besides improving the chances of meat export.
This was disclosed by the Punjab Livestock and Dairy Development Department (PLDD) Secretary Hamid Yaqoob Sheikh while talking to journalists here on Wednesday. He stated that the soft launch of the newly established slaughterhouse had been scheduled in December. However, the project would be formally inaugurated by some Iranian dignitary as Iran had helped Pakistan a lot in setting up this facility.
He said that the new slaughterhouse would not only cater the local demand but would also help in enhancing halal meat exports from Punjab. He pointed out that the international halal meat market is hovering around $637 billion, whereas Pakistan had negligible share of below one per cent in it.
Responding to a question, PLDD secretary revealed it was a gigantic project having two slaughtering line of 6,000 animals each that means in an eight hours shift 6,000 animals could be slaughtered at same time in hygienically controlled environment. He underscored that internationally recognised meat processing standards would be ensured during the whole slaughtering and marketing process. Initially the project would cater domestic demand, but once the certification and standardisation process would be completed it would start processing export orders.
Sheikh said that though Punjab Agriculture and Meat Company (PAMCO) had the administrative control of the project, but this Pakistan's biggest automated meat processing plant would attract huge investment from local and international investors.
About current meat processing arrangements, he said that the government was aware about the situation and laws were present to curb malpractices. But it had no other substitute; once the new meat processing facility would be operational the government would ensure compliance of the rules. It would not only cut the government's health bill, but would also encourage meat exports from the country, he maintained.
He further stated that PLDD Department also recognised the bottlenecks in the meat supply chain, as the country was not producing enough animals to cater the domestic demand. There were substantial production losses owing to early slaughtering and mortality of male calves. He disclosed that some estimates suggested that around 5-6 million male calves were being slaughtered before attaining the age of one month, mainly because of the economic reasons.
Though, he said, dairy sector had witnessed a remarkable growth during recent years, but meat processing still lack far behind from any standard. The government was operating only three slaughterhouses, which could not fulfil domestic demand as population had been multiplied over the years.