Nepali buffalo meat gets greenlight from China

Nepal will now be able to export thermally processed water buffalo meat to China. Officials of the two countries signed a protocol to facilitate water buffalo meat export to China during the China visit of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. This agreement is part of nine bilateral understandings reached between the two nations on Tuesday.

The protocol enables Nepali businesses to export cooked and processed water buffalo meat to China under Chinese guidelines. This follows the cabinet’s approval on June 30 of an agreement to export cooked buffalo meat to China.  Nepal and China held preliminary discussion on meat exports during former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s China visit in September last year.

According to Global Times, China has beefed up efforts on the diversification of beef imports in 2024. This is expected to reduce market fluctuations due to over-reliance on any single market, while providing more opportunities for other countries through high-level opening-up.

Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development say China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) had provided Nepal with a 150-page document outlining stringent standards for meat imports. These include disease-free certification, hygiene standards and compliance with phytosanitary measures. Only the meat of water buffaloes under 30 months of age and raised under specified conditions will qualify for the export.

According to the MoALD, Nepal produces around 194,090 tons of water buffalo meat annually. Nepal’s water buffalo population is estimated at around 5.13m.

China, the largest importer of meat in the world, can be a lucrative export market for Nepal. The northern neighbor imported about 2.74m tons of beef in 2023, up 1.8 percent year-on-year, hitting a new high, according to Global Times. Imports over the first four months of 2023 stand at 1m tons, up 22 percent compared to the same period of 2023. It is difficult to get data on water buffalo meat consumption in China as Chinese customs import data categorise buffalo meat together with other cattle raised for meat under the category ‘meat of bovine animal’.

China mainly imports beef from countries including Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. It recently lifted a ban on five Australian beef exporters as demand outpaces its domestic production.