Sale of goat and sheep has dropped from 16 million to 6.5 million during Eidul Azha since 2006 owing to increase in cost of living and shrinking income of the middle class, former President, Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA) Khurshid Alam told Business Recorder here on Friday. He said instead of individual sacrifice of goat and sheep, more and more people are participating in the sacrifice of cattle and camels as seven people can share in a sacrifice with a contribution of Rs 7,000 to 8,000 per person.
The average price of a goat and sheep ranged between 20,000 and 25,000 this year. "This trend has badly hit the leather industry and rural economy of the country," he added. Livestock and Breeders Association President Hamid Malhi said that Eidul Azha contributes up to Rs 1.5 billion to the rural livestock sector through the sale of sacrificial animals, goats, sheep, cows, camels every year. "Since the sale of sacrificial animals has significantly dropped, the landless livestock farmers have suffered the most as the livestock is the mainstay of the landless farmers and the farm labour," he added.
He regretted that on the one hand the sale of sheep, goat, cows, and camel has dropped during Eidul Azha, on the other the government has banned export of cattle, making life of the poor breeders miserable. On top of that the government has allowed import of cattle from India without providing any relief to local peasants and livestock breeders, he added.
The value-added leather industry is also at the crossroads. About 35 to 40 percent tanneries in different parts of the country including Tannery Zone, Karachi, Kasur, Lahore and Sialkot have been closed down already mainly on account of scarcity of raw material. For the last four years the growth of leather sector was either stagnant or declining owing to smuggling of cattle stock
Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA) sources said there are about 800 tanneries in the country. The industry employs about 500,000 people directly, producing fine quality finished leather for export as well as for home consumption. It contributes 5 percent of GDP and 5.4 percent to the overall export earnings of the country.