LAHORE: Businessmen have welcomed the landmark decision of the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) to allow Pakistani meat exporters to export beef to China.

Progressive Group’s Central leader and LCCI Executive Member Muhammad Ejaz Tanveer and Pakistan Meat Processors & Exporters representative Mian Abdul Hannan in a joint statement issued here on Thursday said it was a long-standing demand by his group member especially those working in the field of meat processing and exports.

China, a heavily populated country with higher purchasing power, could be a very lucrative market for Pakistani beef and other meat products exports; they added that the government should devise an effective strategy in collaboration with meat exporters to tap other foreign markets too.

They said the decision of China will enable Pakistani exporters to earn millions of dollars by exporting beef to Chinese importers. They, however, asked the exporters to follow certain guidelines issued by the Chinese authorities for Pakistani exporters for meat exports.

Muhammad Ejaz Tanveer and Mian Abdul Hannan said Pakistan being an agricultural country had enormous potential to promote value addition of agricultural, livestock and aquaculture products so as to direly needed foreign exchange. They said that the government should promote the processing industry for agricultural and livestock products near the rural areas so as to lessen poverty and pave the way for development.

They welcomed that the government had shown its intent to develop agriculture of the country in the proposed budget 2023-24 but it was direly needed to take practical measures in this dimension instead of raising mere slogans.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023