ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has cleared the export of donkey meat and hides from Gwadar to China, days after a Chinese company operating in the port city warned it would shut down because key permissions had not been issued. The Economic Coordination Committee approved the export on April 27 after taking up a summary from the National Food Security and Research Division, and also approved the disposal of existing inventory in line with applicable regulations and export protocols.
The dispute centered on Hangeng Trade Company, which runs a donkey slaughter and processing facility in the Gwadar Free Zone. On May 1, the company announced it was terminating operations and laying off workers in Pakistan and China, saying that despite meeting inspection, quarantine and food safety requirements, its exports remained blocked because the required approvals had not been implemented. The notice turned a pending trade file into an immediate operational issue for the federal government.
Implementation moved quickly after that notice. On May 2, Pakistan’s Animal Quarantine Department informed the company it was allowed to export donkey meat from the Gwadar Free Zone in accordance with the import policy of the destination country. On May 3, Hangeng Trade Company said it had reversed its decision to close the operation after intervention by senior Pakistani officials, restoring activity at the facility two days after the shutdown announcement.
Pakistan expands export protocol
The clearance followed nearly two years of official work on market access and sanitary arrangements. In 2024, Pakistani officials told a Senate panel that the protocol for donkey hides to China had been finalized and that donkey meat was being added to the export list. The Ministry of National Food Security and Research later said in its official yearbook that sanitary protocols for donkey meat and hides had been approved and that slaughtering and processing for export would be confined to Gwadar.
Pakistan had already been positioning Gwadar as the center of the trade. In April 2025, the food security minister told a visiting Chinese delegation that donkey farms, slaughterhouses and export facilities could be set up in the Gwadar Export Processing Zone, subject to legal requirements. By October 2025, the Gwadar Port Authority and the Chinese company were publicly describing the first phase of the project as a donkey meat processing and export venture, with production aimed at the Chinese market.
Operations resume after clearance
The project has been handled as an export-only business, with Pakistani authorities previously stating that processing in Gwadar would help ensure the products did not enter the domestic food chain. Pakistan recorded a donkey population of 5.9 million in 2024, one of the largest totals in the world. Domestic consumption of donkey meat is prohibited under Islamic dietary rules, making the trade dependent on tightly controlled export channels and quarantine compliance rather than any local retail market.
The latest approval leaves Gwadar as the focal point of the business and resolves the immediate bottleneck that had halted shipments. It also formalizes a route for inventory already held at the facility to move under export rules agreed by Pakistani authorities and the destination market. For now, the sequence is clear: the Economic Coordination Committee cleared the exports, the Animal Quarantine Department issued the operative permission, and Hangeng Trade Company withdrew its closure decision after receiving the go-ahead. – By Content Syndication Services.