Lahore: METRO, the leading international wholesale company, hosted a knowledge sharing session for the visiting delegation from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government at METRO head office Lahore. The delegation was comprised of senior officials of the Food Authority, Local Govternment, and Livestock Department from KPK.
The visit was organized by United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) under the Agri-Food and Agro-Industry Development Assistance (PAFAID) program, on the subject titled “Improving Cattle Meat Value Chain in KP”. METRO Pakistan is supporting UNIDO expert working groups to improve value chains of Cattle Meat in KP and Apple in Baluchistan.
The visiting delegation was welcomed by Mr. Zohaib Jamil, Senior Manager, Quality Assurance- METRO Pakistan and briefed the visiting delegates about meat products supply chain model, the associated certifications (FSSC 22000, HALAL) and practices followed by METRO Pakistan from sourcing till delivery to customers during the site visit.
Addressing the delegation, Mr. Azfar Ali, Senior Head of Operations – Sales, Supply Chain & Expansion, METRO Pakistan, explained the supply chain model of METRO Pakistan and challenges faced in procurement from local market due to low level of compliance on international standards. He said “It’s a commitment of METRO Management to provide safe, hygienic and certified HALAL meat products to our customers through improving meat supply chain in Pakistan.
METRO will continue to support all initiatives and projects that can improve the meat supply chain, ultimately providing safe, hyienic and quality products to the customers.”
The session ended with note of thanks from the METRO management to the UNIDO team lead by Mr. Omar Khan, Research Analyst, and Ms. Lubna Tajik, Lead National Project Coordinator for arranging the visit which will help officials in improving on the subject of Cattle Meat Value Chain in their province.
METRO Pakistan implement very stringent global food safety and quality requirements throughout supply chain and it is the only cash & carry in Pakistan with FSSC 222000 certification, a globally recognized food safety system certification, and the first cash & carry with certified HALAL fresh meat products available at its 10 stores nationwide.
