Tajikistan abandons pork production

Tajikistan officially abandoned any pork production as all industrial pig farms in the country stopped operating in recent years, according to the country’s consumers’ organisations.

With a mostly Muslim population who do not consume pork Tajikistan in recent years has faced a decrease in demand for such type of meat.

According to official information, since the time of the fall of the Soviet Union the pork-consuming population of Tajikistan decreased from 380,000 persons to about 50,000 persons. As a result, the pig population in the country dropped from several million heads in the end of 1990s to 456 heads in 2014, state official statistical data.

At the same time, consumers’ organisations urge the government to implement a project for the construction of two to three pig farms in the country, to meet the demand of non-Muslim part of the population. Local consumers say that today it is impossible to find chilled pig meat in the country’s market.

Representatives of the local agricultural business has stated that pork production in the country has been stopped due to the actions of the government, which does not support this type of business and has even implemented administrative pressure on farms to force them stop operating.

Given the drop in demand on the domestic market this has led to lost profitability or farms resulting in its closure. In general, the country’s consumers do not believe that production of pig meat in Tajikistan could be restored in the foreseeable future.