Case of costly animals

Pakistan has been facing a huge trade deficit for the past many years, primarily on account of having more imports than exports. It is a huge challenge for the government to reduce it and control it, but there’s not much hope in sight as all economic indicators are looking down.

Recently, a survey brought to fore a growing disparity in the import and export of animals in the country. It showed that the import of animals in terms of both amount and quantity have been superseding the amount and quantity by a huge margin, compared with export of animals from Pakistan during the past three years.

According to official figures of Ministry of Commerce, a copy of which is available with Bol News, Pakistan imported a total of US$19,213,000 worth 669,598 animals during 2020-21 while $11,782,000 worth 35,645,851 animals were exported from Pakistan during the same period.

Likewise a total of 979,176 animals were imported to Pakistan with the cost of $18,424,000 in 2019-20. Meanwhile Pakistan exported a total of 11,910,313 animals against cost of approximately $5666,000.

Moreover, in 2018-19 Pakistan imported a total of 850,797 animals from worldwide against the cost of $19,435,000. During the same period a total of 18,409,087 animals were exported from Pakistan at the cost of $6,672,000.

The details of import of animals carry interesting facts and figures with regard to variety of animals. Pakistan has been importing pure breeding horses from number of countries including United Kingdom, Argentina, Netherland and others. Breeding bulls, breeding cows, other bulls and live cows, live sheep, goat etc were also imported to Pakistan during the mentioned period.

Fowls (chickens) having weighing up to 185 gram were also imported from a number of countries during the same period and, in all, a total of 620,375 fowls worth up to $9,760,530 were imported in 2020-21 alone.

Ducks, geese etc were also imported during the stated period while rabbits and hares also made it to the chart of the finance ministry, which were imported to Pakistan to fulfill the local demand.

Besides, Pakistan imported reptiles including snacks and turtles from United States and Afghanistan. In 2019-20, a total of 746 reptiles were imported to Pakistan from United States and Afghanistan having worth $2,130. Major chunk of this import was made from Afghanistan as 700 reptiles in total were imported from the neighbouring country having worth $2020.

The psittaciformes (parrots and birds) were also imported besides the hunting birds during the above mentioned period. A total of 6,033 hunting birds worth $67,860 were imported from the Netherland, Oman, Bulgaria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Serbia, Philippines and others in 2020-21. A total of 4,975 psittaciformes from Lebanon having a value of $69830 were imported during 2020-21.

Bees have been another import item from Afghanistan as Pakistan continues to import them from the neighbouring country in abundance during the past three years. A total of 16,500 bees valuing $123,990 were imported to Pakistan from Afghanistan during 2020-21. A total of 141,334 bees worth $356,130 were imported from Afghanistan in 2019-20. Likewise, a total of 18,800 bees valuing $98,110 were imported from Afghanistan during 2018-19.

When it comes of export of animals, Pakistan has been exporting live animals, sheep, goats, fowls, primates, reptiles and other animals to a number of countries during the past three years.

8,000 goats were exported to Afghanistan, valuing $3,200 in 2020-21. Afghanistan has also been one of the prime destinations of export of fowls and live poultry from Pakistan who exported 113,765 fowls (chicken) worth $79,220 to Afghanistan in 2020-21. It also made exports of fowls to Afghanistan in 2019-20 and 2018-19 in good number. Pakistan exported a total of 31,606,743 live poultry to Afghanistan having worth $8,736,830 in 2020-21. It has also been exporting live chickens to Afghanistan in preceding mentioned years too.

Afghanistan has been a prime destination with regard to export of primates from Pakistan. A total of 2,100 primates having worth $2,100 were exported to Afghanistan from Pakistan during 2020-21. Pakistan also exported a total of 1,609 falcons to United Arab Emirates (UAE) valuing $1,800 during 2019-20.

Kaiser Bengali, a renowned economist, while talking to Bol News, said that Pakistan can’t continue to export animals like this due to limited breeding of animals here.

He said Pakistan has two types of terrain, one which is cultivatable and the other arid. He said Pakistan grows crops on the land which is cultivatable and it got no grass land as is required for rearing animals which is an area that needs to looked into.