LAHORE: Pakistan’s local producers are highly irked over the rising presence of cheap smuggled Iranian dairy goods found on the retailers’ shelves in low-end markets across the country.
Though consumers are benefiting from these low-cost Iranian goods, the local manufacturers are annoyed as it causes heavy revenue loss to them.
“The smuggled Iranian dairy products have been visible in retail stores of Karachi, Sukkur, Islamabad, Lahore, Sargodha, Peshawar and Jhelum in the last six months,” CEO Pakistan Dairy Association (PDA) Dr Shehzad Amin told media.
The government needs to ensure compliance of imported dairy products as per applicable standards on a par with locally regulated dairy products, he said, adding that the Iranian dairy cream is missing halal certification, address of the importer, the ingredient and nutritional information in the Urdu language, and importers’ name and address.
The Iranian dairy products including UHT dairy cream, liquid milk, flavoured milk, etc are priced lower than locally produced products, he said.
Giving an example, he said a locally made high-quality dairy cream costs PKR Rs 140 (200 ML) whereas its Iranian counterpart is selling at Rs 100-110.
Smuggled flavoured milk is 18-20 per cent cheaper than the locally made product selling at Rs 50-70 (small pack), he claimed.
He said the PDA had informed the Punjab Food Authority and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Customs (Policy) that the influx of smuggled products is not only causing revenue losses but are a clear violation of labelling requirements of SRO237 as well as applicable quality and nutrition standards of the provincial and federal food authorities.
“We are trying to meet the FBR member customs policy next week to discuss the illegal arrival of dairy products from Iran,” he said.
Moreover, the PDA has also raised several other issues in the illegal arrival of dairy products like design infringement, labelling anomalies, import irregularities, food safety risk and violation of SRO237.
