Traders and activists of consumer rights have demanded of government to ban the export of meat and take steps to prevent the animals smuggling, which cause sever shortage of the essential food.
Speaking at a seminar on "reasons of meat price hike and its solution" which Meat Merchants Welfare Association (MMWA) organised jointly with Consumer Association of Pakistan (CAP) at a local hotel on Tuesday, President MMWA Muhammad Saleem Qureshi urged the government to find out the real factors behind the meat price increase.
He regretted that the meat merchants are always blamed for increase in the prices, instead looking into the facts making it costlier. He demanded of the government to take measures for stabilising the meat price to benefit the consumers and provide a sigh of relief to traders as well.
Chairman CAP, Kokab Iqbal said that the animals smuggling and meat export are primarily responsible behind the price hike on the local markets. He criticised the government for allowing meat export, while ignoring the local demand, saying that never it has paid an attention to this issue to resolve. He expressed fears over the meat price hike, saying that if the upward trend did not break now the price of meat is feared to reach beyond the common person's reach. Export of meat has posted about 52 percent increase during the fiscal year 2008-09, as compared to the meat export of the corresponding fiscal year, he said while citing the official statistics.
Executive District Office (EDO), Enterprise and Investment Promotion department, Dr A D Sunjani said that there is a need of planning to satisfy the consumers' demand for meat. He suggested that cattle farming could increase the animal production. He said government and all other stakeholders are responsible for the meat price hike.