Pakistani company wins $3.9 million contract to export meat to Saudi Arabia

A butcher wearing a facemask carries goat meat at a market during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Islamabad on April 9, 2020. (AFP/File)
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Updated 02 March 2021
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Pakistani company wins $3.9 million contract to export meat to Saudi Arabia

  • The Organic Meat Company Limited is the first Pakistani organization that has been approved by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority to export frozen meat via sea
  • The company’s founder says the contract will boost the confidence of foreign firms on local organizations in working in the meat processing sector

KARACHI: The Organic Meat Company Limited (TOMCL), a major halal meat exporter to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced on Monday it had won a high-value contract of $3.9 million to export frozen boneless meat to the kingdom.
“We would like to inform you that The Organic Meat Company Limited has secured a high value contract for supply of frozen boneless meat with a multinational customer in Saudi Arabia,” the company said in a note to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
This also makes the organization the first Pakistani company that has been approved by a multinational food processing firm for meat supply from Pakistan.
The Organic Meat Company added that the awarded contract was approximately $3.9 million under which the company would export 100 metric tons of frozen boneless meat every month for a year through sea routes to Jeddah.
The company has also received an approval from the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA).
“TOMCL has been contracted to supply frozen boneless meat to National Food Company (Americana), which is one of the most successful organizations in the Middle East. The group is considered one of the largest food manufacturing and distributing companies in the region,” read the company’s statement to PSX.
Its management officials noted that the export contract with a key market player in Saudi Arabia would boost trust among foreign food processors.
“It is good for Pakistan because it will increase the confidence of foreign food processors since this export contract implies that there are such companies in Pakistan who can supply quality meat to them,” Faisal Husain, the organization’s founder and chief executive officer, told Arab News on Tuesday. “This will also increase the share of Pakistani meat products in the Saudi market.”
Analysts say that despite the coronavirus pandemic, food exports from Pakistan have shown improvement and meat exporters are playing a major role in it.
“We have seen improvement in many export-oriented sectors in the past few months. Despite the virus, exports have improved in food and a few other sectors. Pakistan has a huge potential to export meat,” Muhammad Sohail, chief executive officer of Topline Securities, told Arab News, adding: “The Organic Meat Company, being one of the largest meat exporters, is playing a key role.”

 

 

Pakistan’s exports of meat and meat preparations stood at $103 million during the July-October 2020 period, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. In terms of quantity, the exports were 20 percent higher than the same period of last year.
Based in Karachi, The Organic Meat Company’s facilities are approved to supply products to Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Maldives, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
The company was incorporated in 2010 and raised about Rs800 million from initial public offering (IPO) at PSX to set up two new facilities to process and export offal to far eastern markets.


Pakistan arrests suspect arriving from Cambodia amid crackdown on human smuggling

Updated 14 December 2025
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Pakistan arrests suspect arriving from Cambodia amid crackdown on human smuggling

  • Suspect worked at an “online fraud company” in Cambodia, later started smuggling people from Pakistan, says FIA
  • Pakistan has intensified crackdown against human smugglers after hundreds of migrants drowned near Pylos in 2023

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday said it had arrested a key suspect involved in smuggling humans who had arrived from Cambodia, alleging he was also part of an international fraud network. 

The suspect, identified as Zainullah, was arrested by FIA officials when he arrived in the southern port city of Karachi from Cambodia. 

Zainullah had traveled from Pakistan to Cambodia in September 2024, a press release issued by the agency said. 

“He worked at an online fraud company in Cambodia and later became involved as an agent in recruiting individuals from Pakistan,” the FIA said. 

The FIA said it recovered images of multiple individuals’ passports, payment receipts and bank transaction records after extracting data from Zainullah’s phone. 

It said the suspect received money through personal bank accounts and a cryptocurrency account.

“The suspect has been handed over to the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle, Karachi, for further legal proceedings,” the FIA said. 

“Further investigation is underway.”

Pakistan intensified action against illegal migration in 2023 after hundreds of migrants, including 262 Pakistanis, drowned when an overcrowded vessel sank off the Greek town of Pylos, one of the deadliest boat disasters in the Mediterranean. 

Authorities say they continue to target networks sending citizens abroad through dangerous routes, following heightened scrutiny at airports and a series of arrests involving forged documents.

Pakistan’s interior ministry said this week illegal migration to Europe has declined by 47 percent this year after its nationwide crackdown, saying that more than 1,700 human smugglers have been arrested in 2025.