According to foreign trade data released by Pakistan’s Federal Bureau of Statistics, the country’s exports of leather goods declined by 5.3% to US$127 million during the first seven months of the current fiscal year. Between July 2002 to January 2003 leather manufacturing fell by 1.6% to US$240.7 million. However exports of footwear surged by 53% to US$44.7 million. Total exports in the leather industry grew by 1.10% to $412.485 million.
In January 2003 alone, Pakistan’s export of leather goods fell by 33.7% to $11.6 million, leather manufacturing decreased by 34.1% to $21.9 million while footwear exports increased by 3.6% to $6.5 million.
Meanwhile, in the run up to the Eid-ul-Azha holiday, the Peshawar city district government in Pakistan was forced to ban the transportation of all cattle to bordering Afghanistan for seven days, in order to control the price of sacrificial animals in local markets.
The district government in the North West Frontier Province imposed the ban on February 8 and warned that any person found violating the order would face prosecution.
Before the ban was imposed a large number of cattle had already been transported to Afghanistan, causing a sharp rise in the price of sacrificial animals. Compared with the previous year, the price of lambs, sheep and goats increased from Rs800 (US$13.8) to Rs2000 (US$34.3), according to their size and weight. The price of cows, buffalos and camels doubled from Rs2500 (US$43) to Rs5000 (US$86).
