KARACHI, Sept 14: Meat merchants have flatly refused to sell meat at reduced rates in the holy month of Ramazan as the city government is exerting pressure on them to agree to a substantial cut.

A meeting in this regard was held here on Thursday where the meat merchants reportedly assured the government side that they would not increase the rates in Ramazan.

“We are considering a cut of five per cent, i.e. Rs10 per kilogramme, in the meat prices in order to provide relief to general public,” General-Secretary of the Meat Merchants Welfare Association (MMWA) Iqbal Qureshi told the meeting, ruling out his organization’s intention to reduce the rates phenomenally.

The meat merchants have adopted the same stand they had taken in the previous years. To justify their action, they have repeated the arguments like rising exports of meat and live animals, smuggling of animals to Iran and Afghanistan, acute shortage of animals in the markets, etc., and maintained that the hike in meat prices effected by them over the past few years was also justified.

“These are still the hard facts,” Iqbal Qureshi insisted.

A number of truck-loads of animals is smuggled from Quetta to Iran whereas locally produced animals find their way into Afghanistan via Torkham. This is the fact upon which the association has been clamouring for years, but the government is not ready to accept it, according to him.

EDO Enterprises and Investment Promotion Raeesuddin Paracha, who chaired the meeting, said that the meat merchants flatly refused to accept any pressure for a reduction in meat prices. He said they, however, held out the assurance that the prices of mutton and beef would be maintained at pre-Ramazan level.

Over the past few years, meat prices have climbed very high. Iqbal Qureshi attributes this to the closure of Pakistan-India Border which, he claimed, had dealt a blow to the supply position as over 40 per cent of Indian livestock had been finding its way into Pakistan under the informal trade.

At present, mutton prices range between Rs220 and Rs250 per kg while Cow meat (with bones) costs Rs 100 per kg. Bachhia meat with bones sells at Rs120-130 per kg and boneless at Rs160 per kg.

Giving an example, Jehangir Qureshi, the association’s press secretary, said he had imported 334 goats from India via Wahga border on September 6 and found it not feasible as a 14/15-kg goat cost him Rs3,000. He, however, went on to say that another shipment of around 500 goats would be arriving from India very soon.

He said that in India, mutton was selling at Rs120 per kg while the landing cost of meat (from the recent 334 goats) came to Rs170 per kg at wholesale. “While it was already selling at Rs220 per kg in Lahore, how can it be feasible to bring the stocks to Karachi for sale?”

Describing the volume of import as thin, as against the huge market requirement, he suggested that at least 20,000-30,000 goats were needed to be imported from India on a daily basis if the objective was to make the import feasible and bring down the prices phenomenally. He further suggested granting of permission to import live animals via Khokhrapar-Monabao border and opening of sea routes in this context, APP adds.

POULTRY PRICES: Fishermen community and poultry dealers assured the meeting a reduction of 10 per cent in the prices of their merchandize for Ramazan.