Recently, in a major crackdown on illegal meat trade, the Islamabad Food Authority raided a plant in Tarnol and seized about 1,000 kg of donkey meat and arrested a Chinese national. A lot of hue and cry erupted and at the same time, social media had a grand time posting reels on TikTok and humorous memes on WhatsApp.
But this event was nothing to joke about. For Pakistan, donkey hides and donkey meat are important non-traditional export items because there is a huge market, especially in China.
According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan has a donkey population exceeding six million and hence there are significant opportunities to tap into the hides and meat export market. The sad fact is that nearly all donkey slaughterhouses are basically unregulated and unregistered, and this casual attitude leads to unhygienic donkey meat that is usually sold to informal meat shops, micro food stalls, and at times even to small restaurants. Donkey meat is cheap and becomes an attractive moneymaker for unscrupulous people.
Pakistan has emerged as the largest exporter of donkeys, and this can further increase the country’s export figures. During the visit of Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, Pakistan and China signed a protocol under which Pakistan would annually export meat and hides of, as well as live, 200,000 donkeys.
This figure should be taken seriously, and it is incumbent upon the government to set in motion the framework and protocols to regulate the donkey business. The illegal donkey business must be immediately stopped, or else Pakistan would lose this lucrative export business as well as negatively impact on the reputation of the country. However, there is still hesitation in planning and approving locations of the donkey slaughterhouses.
The donkey slaughterhouses must operate and be fully compliant in accordance with the law and under comprehensive regulatory oversight.
There are many official certificates and approvals from various authoritative government bodies including NOC for donkey slaughter issued by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, farm and slaughterhouse registration certificates, NOC from the religious institutions, environmental compliance certificate from the relevant Environmental Protection Agency, and international certifications such as HACCP and ISO.
These documents comprehensively cover environmental protection, hygiene, religious compliance, food safety, and slaughter qualifications. They collectively confirm the legality, legitimacy, and regulatory compliance of donkey trade investment and operations.
It is very important that China and Pakistan jointly ensure a transparent and respectful ecosystem for legal Chinese and Pakistani investment, and resolutely oppose any non-state forces that seek to disrupt the Belt and Road Initiative architecture. Chinese enterprises can also transfer advanced management techniques and professional expertise to Pakistan.
Discussions with government officials, religious figures, and even some in donkey business revealed that these slaughterhouses should be, by law, established in Gwadar. This would ensure that a focused authority is able to regulate the supply chain as well as be the focal point for those in donkey business.
Establishing donkey enterprises and farms in Gwadar Free Zone is a win-win situation. First, it will promote development of Gwadar. Second, it will centralize supervision and ensure food safety. Third, it will respect religious beliefs and local culture. Thus, donkey slaughterhouses should be banned in other areas, especially to prevent incidents like in Tarnol. As it is, the industrialization process is rather at snail’s speed and making Gwadar the donkey business hub is pragmatic because no industrialist is presently willing to settle there.
This is a golden opportunity for Gwadar as it would be the catalyst for the development of Gwadar Port which is the joint vision of Chinese and Pakistani leadership.
Gwadar presently faces some of Pakistan’s most difficult conditions—frequent security incidents, limited transport access, and severely underdeveloped power, water, and health facilities.
Unlike established Export Processing Zones in Sindh, Punjab or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gwadar offers no natural advantage except its location as a Port. Nevertheless, investors can make significant, high-risk investments to build slaughter, cold-chain, quarantine, warehousing, customs clearance, and export logistics systems from scratch.
The objective is to create jobs, improve local livelihoods, and catalyse Port trade volumes by developing sustainable, value-added industries in the Gwadar Free Zone. Achieving success will demonstrate to Pakistan and the world that Gwadar is viable, investable, and essential to Asia’s future trade network. It is also proposed restricting approval for new slaughterhouses in other cities and only giving NOCs for Gwadar Free Zone, besides ensuring all export oriented facilities are centrally regulated, traceable, and secure.
Furthermore, it is important to reassess recent NOC approvals in other Provinces for risk, sustainability, and social impact. It is imperative to develop national industry standards for slaughterhouse facilities, supply-chain management, and export compliance. Encouraging new entrants to invest in Gwadar, creating fair competition, sharing infrastructure, and collectively supporting local development should be the goals.
To ensure transparency, sustainability and accountability throughout the donkey supply chain in Gwadar Free Zone it is proposed that a prescribed system be put in place. This includes, inter alia, the following: (a) Preventing internal corruption and fraud by implementing tamper-proof digital tracking (QR-coded hoof rings) and real-time data uploads that would verify all live donkey entries into the supply chain. (b) Counteracting external defamation because of false accusations, misleading aspersions, and market distrust that can be addressed through traceable and government-auditable digital records. (c) Guaranteeing origin and animal health transparency through traceable and transparent documentation of each donkey’s health status, origin, and transaction history across all supply chain stages. (d) Enabling performance monitoring through a laid down policy that will require farmers, transporters, suppliers, and internal employees to be evaluated on quality, quantity, compliance, and service delivery. (e) Supporting and accepting government oversight mechanism that offers structured, exportable, and shareable data models for compliance with food safety and animal welfare regulations.
The formal slaughterhouses would be strongly mandated to document and put into effect at least five key operational modules.
Firstly, donkey identification and source traceability. Placing unique QR-Coded hoof rings on each donkey at the origin in the supply chain that would provide data such as weight, temperature, health status, and origin. It would mention donkey owner’s records that would be audited, it would register and record identity documents, addresses, and partnership contracts with farmers, and it would display individual transaction data, including per-donkey pricing and delivery history and tied to the profile of the supplying farmer.
Secondly, supply cycle performance analytics of income and quality dashboard, monthly/quarterly summaries of each farmer’s supply quantity, acceptance rate, and revenue will be displayed graphically. Farmer profiling to ensure trustworthiness and commitment be recorded since this historical data would be used to assess supply reliability, animal health standards, and eligibility for future contracts.
Thirdly, transportation and logistics monitoring process that would take log in pre-loading registration, vehicle plate number, driver CNIC, loading time, and donkey identification number. There would be real time transit monitoring through GPS and environmental condition sensors (temperature, humidity) since this will provide online status tracking with automatic alerts for any deviations.
In-transit fattening station logs would be maintained and available for checking and inspection. The arrival time at fattening station and a fortnight fattening progress (body weight, feed intake, and condition) will be recorded before dispatch to the slaughterhouse in Gwadar.
Fourthly, veterinary inspection at slaughterhouse is crucial. Some ways this can be done include QR verification upon arrival of animals, in-house veterinarians who would scan and verify each donkey and upload a health report (vitals, mobility, physical check, etc.), health status visualization, and time-based charts that display donkey health progress and identify abnormalities in any source or transport batch.
Fifthly, performance assessment across the supply chain. These include supplier evaluation, supplier rating based on consistency, on-time delivery, mortality rate, and documentation completeness, transporter quality rating and evaluations based on transit compliance, issued reports, and punctuality. It is important to set up an internal staff Key Performance Indicators Dashboard for animal health inspectors, logistics supervisors, and supply managers, to obtain real time assessment of their performances and activities based on data accuracy, response time, and trail compliance and completeness. They have to be encouraged to continue working and exporting while strict legal actions must be taken against unscrupulous investors such as the one in Tarnol. There is a fabulous future for Pakistani donkey-related exports if pragmatic policies are immediately envisioned and implemented. One point is for sure. Donkey business is here to stay.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The writer is President Employers Federation of Pakistan