China Customs approved import of buffalo embryos from Pakistan

Recently, China’s General Administration of Customs issued a notice on the quarantine requirements for buffalo embryos imported from Pakistan, stating that China will allow the import of embryos produced by in vitro fertilization (IVF) using oocytes collected from live buffalo ovaries at production units registered in Pakistan through both China and Pakistan.

This means that China and Pakistan have opened a trade channel for the import and export of buffalo embryos, and both countries will make a breakthrough in the process of improving animal husbandry with high-quality genetics. Chinese experience with Pakistani buffalo dates back to 1974 when Pakistan presented China with 50 Nili-Ravi buffaloes, a world-famous breed of river dairy buffalo, as a national gift.

Royal Group is the only listed buffalo milk processing company in China. According to Derek Qin, Director of Overseas Business Department, Royal Cell Biotechnology (Guangxi) Co. Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Royal Cell), the sales volume of buffalo milk in China is about RMB 5 billion. Royal Group’s buffalo milk accounts for about 60 percent of the buffalo milk market in China as a whole.

After joining the “Belt and Road” project pool of China’s National Development and Reform Commission in June this year, Royal Cell’s “China-Pakistan Disease Free Pasture and Breeding Project” was again included in the first batch of agricultural projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) at the third meeting of the China-Pakistan Agricultural Joint Working Group held recently.

In October 2020, Royal Group officially launched the “Dairy Buffalo Industry Upgrading Project” and established Royal Cell in May 2021. Royal Cell opened its first buffalo embryo production and research laboratory in Pakistan in May this year. Currently, the joint venture between Royal Cell and JW Group Pakistan, namely Royal JW Buffalo Industry Company, Ltd., is under registration and the farm construction will start next month.

“JW Group has excellent experience in working with Chinese companies. JW Group recognizes Royal Group’s whole industrial chain layout of milk buffalo in Pakistan, and highly affirms our ‘milk buffalo provenance chip strategy’.” Teng Cuijin, Chairman of Royal Cell Biotechnology told China Economic Net (CEN) in a recent interview that, “Royal JW Buffalo Industry Company, Ltd plans to invest US$100 million over five years to build up buffalo farms and the whole supply chain of buffalo milk in Pakistan. It is expected to contribute an annual output value of US$90 million and create roughly 1,000 vacancies for Pakistanis in need, ranging from buffalos breeding, crop raising, milking and dairy processing.”

“In scientific research, we welcome Pakistani research institutions to the laboratory for exchanges and studies. We plan to provide training to local research institutions and universities, and share the technology of embryo production and buffalo breeding with the Pakistani people.” Teng concluded.