Overview
- Hours after the company's Friday shutdown warning, the prime minister's office pushed through cabinet ratification and the Animal Quarantine Department issued export permission.
- Approvals had stalled for months across the food security ministry and the Cabinet Division, with an Economic Coordination Committee decision from April 27 awaiting full cabinet signoff.
- The clearance limits shipments to the Gwadar North Free Zone and requires compliance with China’s rules, including a bar on meat produced before January 16, 2026.
- Government officials said Hangeng fell short of agreed breeding and traceability terms, and the company countered that execution failures inside government blocked compliant shipments.
- The timing aims to steady investor nerves before Shehbaz Sharif’s China visit in a trade Pakistan pegs at about 216,000 donkeys a year and up to $300 million.