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rising prices forcing many to forgo
meat
by amena bakr
the bird flu scare has brought poultry
sales to a sudden halt as many egyptian consumers – fearing
they could contract bird flu by eating infected birds – have
dropped chicken from their diets. the high cost of beef and fish,
however, is forcing many to forgo meat protein altogether.
“the only meat i could afford was chicken. now that there’s
bird flu it looks like i won’t be eating any meat at all,”
laments ibrahim abdel naby, a 54-year-old car cleaner.
egypt’s £e 17 million poultry industry has been losing
about £e 10 million per day since an outbreak of the h5n1
bird flu virus was announced in february. the government ordered
the closure of egypt’s 150,000 live-bird vendors and culled
all domestically raised poultry, leaving frozen poultry the only
option for consumers.
at just £e 5.5 per kilo (prior to the bird flu outbreak),
fresh farm chicken has traditionally been the main source of animal
protein in egyptian diets with an estimated 2 million chickens consumed
each day. since the bird flu scare, demand for chicken has dwindled
to just 450,000 birds per day.
yet despite this trend, according to ahmed said, sales manager of
misr kuwait investment & trading (mkit) company, retail sales
for other meat products have risen less than one might expect. sales
of mkit’s meatello brand, which purportedly holds a 60-percent
share of the processed meat industry, have climbed 30 percent in
recent months – far lower than might be expected. “we
have not seen a lot of [growth] in the retail market,” he says,
said explains that a spike in the prices of red meat and fish –
as much as 40 percent in some places – has made these products
unaffordable for the majority of the population. “the main
consumers of white meats were c class and d class people,”
he says. “they cannot afford the prices of other kinds of meat.”
and when prices go up that much, said points out, they tend to come
back down slowly, if at all.
the high price of beef and lamb, which have climbed to reach £e
38 and £e 35 respectively, is only a sign of problems that
have long plagued egypt’s meat industry. experts say the industry
is suffering a supply shortage due to insufficient local stock,
lack of breeding expertise and a dearth of licensed abattoirs.
according to government figures, egypt’s local red meat production
of about 520,000 tons per year is supplemented by some 120,000 tons
of imported red meat as live cattle and frozen meat from countries
including sudan, ethiopia, australia and india. despite this, experts
say the market still suffers a chronic shortage of about 15-20 percent.
the supply shortage, though nothing new, is especially irksome for
consumers in the climate of the current crisis. in an effort to
relieve the supply problem, minister of foreign trade and industry
rachid
mohamed rachid issued a decree on february 23 that eased the import
process for red meat. but international prices of red meat are keeping
pace with such measures thanks to the worldwide spread of bird flu,
and prices are likely to remain high unless quality is sacrificed.
said, however, disputes the government’s red meat production
figures, saying they are based only on animals slaughtered in abattoirs
and do not include cattle slaughtered by farmers – it is the
latter animals that fill the supply gap. “like the poultry
industry,” he explains, “the meat industry is dominated
by individual farmers, who give an unprofessional edge to the market.”
said estimates that the decentralized operations of individual farmers
constitute about 75 percent of the market.
rising meat prices are not due to a shortage of live animals, he
argues, but rather the uneven distribution of licensed abattoirs,
where veterinarians from the ministry of agriculture check animals
before and after the slaughter takes place to ensure that the meat
is safe for human consumption. many of the country’s abattoirs
are concentrated in urban areas – making it difficult for poor
farmers to transport their animals for slaughter.
dr. omar mohamed sadek, head of the central department of slaughterhouses
& general health in the state-run general organization for veterinary
services, believes that egypt’s 458 licensed slaughterhouses
are sufficient to serve the needs of the nation, at least for now.
“the number of slaughterhouses... is enough for our current
need, but we are always looking at ways to open up more. in order
for us to develop this industry, we have to work with the private
sector.”
said argues, however, that the unavailability of licensed abattoirs,
coupled with high demand, gives way to the unlicensed slaughter
of animals by individual farmers and small butcher shops without
appropriate veterinary inspection. “these farmers are putting
a lot of people at risk of getting viruses and are [giving the industry]
a bad image,” he says.
according to the egyptian institute for toxicology at ain shams
university, rancid meat was among the suspected culprits in many
of the 500,000 cases of food poisoning in 2004. reports abound of
restaurants shut down for serving sub-standard meat, street vendors
passing off donkey meat as beef and farmers surreptitiously selling
the meat of diseased animals.
to support the industry, argues said, the government must place
tighter controls on farmers who “distort” the market by
selling low-quality products. “we have 14 inspection units
monitoring our activities and no one to monitor the millions of
farmers selling their meat randomly,” he complains.
according to a statement issued last month by the ministry of agriculture,
one reason for the meat shortage is that farmers slaughter nearly
380,000 calves per year at a weight of 60 kilograms. in response,
the ministry stipulated that calves must weigh at least 120 kilograms
before slaughter, thereby putting about 12,000 additional tons of
meat on the market.
as a further means of supporting growth in the industry, the ministry
is planning to put £e 280 million into the beef market in
2006 to expand state-owned ranches, while the bank of development
& agricultural credit will offer low-interest loans to farmers.
plans to fatten calves and improve breeding stock (by importing
superior bovine semen from italy) are also in the works.
in a by-now-familiar plotline, however, disease is frustrating these
efforts. despite preventative steps taken by the ministry of health,
last february a new strain of foot-and-mouth disease reached egyptian
livestock. the disease, which cripples the reproductive capacity
of cloven-hoofed animals, has the potential to wipe out an entire
herd in a matter of days. as of press time, the government has reported
7,364 cases and 411 deaths in eight of the country’s 26 governorates
since the outbreak began earlier this year.
dr. mostafa abdel moneim mostafa, head of veterinary quarantine
at the general organization for veterinary services, says that the
virus is a danger to cattle, but poses no threat to humans. “all
animals slaughtered in slaughterhouses are completely safe to eat
and foot-and-mouth disease [never] transfers to humans,” he
says. he advises, however, that people not drink unpasteurized milk,
which might cause minor, easily cured mouth ulcers.
the government is currently looking for the source of the outbreak,
while the general organization for veterinary services is periodically
checking cattle on farms. it has placed quarantines on infected
areas to limit the disease’s spread, and is vaccinating animals
within those areas.
while easily preventable with a vaccine, mkit’s said says the
high price of the imported inoculation, which he claims costs £e
1,200 for a single cow, was undoubtedly a factor in the outbreak
of the disease and its rapid spread. “people cannot afford
such prices, so they choose to take the risk and not vaccinate their
cattle,” he says.
mostafa, however, insists the imported vaccine costs just £e
17. furthermore, he says the ministry of agriculture is supplying
a locally-made vaccine for £e 3, and is providing it free
to poor farmers. yet, so far, only state-run farms are eligible
for the subsidized innoculation. “we are trying to make it
easier for private companies to import the vaccine, but we do not
have enough funds to provide it [completely] free of charge,”
he says.
meanwhile, the fish industry – the other sector on which demand
displaced from poultry has fallen – has seen higher prices
discouraging consumers. ezzat awwad, chairman of the general authority
for fish resources development (gafrd), insists there is no shortage
of fish and thus no reason for traders to raise prices.
according to 2005 figures from the gafrd, fisheries represented
8 percent of total agricultural production in egypt, producing 900
tons per year, roughly 14 kilograms per capita. about 56 percent
is supplied by nile river fisheries, 29 percent from egypt’s
lakes and 15 percent from the sea.
awwad says the agency is pressing traders to reduce their prices
to pre-february 2006 levels “to protect the customer from increased
prices that have no clear justification.” yet, the gafrd has
no legal jurisdiction in pricing matters and can only hope to convince
opportunistic traders that the price hikes will damage the industry
in the long run.
in any case, awwad says the government plans to increase fish production
by opening new fish farms in 2006, though budget figures for this
project are still under discussion. yet the fish industry faces
the same problem endemic among cattle ranchers: unlicensed operations.
awwad says the industry is dominated by unlicensed fish farmers,
who produce nearly 500 tons of fish per year – the majority
of overall production. “the most we can do at the moment is
to run regular checks to make sure that the fish is safe for human
consumption,” he says.
but lately, erroneous rumours of farmers dumping infected chickens
into the nile and, as the story goes, thereby infecting fish with
bird flu – have scared customers away from fish markets. “i
heard that the fish eat the birds thrown in the nile and get infected.
that’s why i stopped eating fish and chicken,” says rania
shawky, a 25-year-old hairdresser in cairo.
with wild rumors surrounding animal protein sources and prices on
the rise, some citizens have resorted to a vegetarian diet out of
fear, poverty or both. “it’s back to good old fuul and
taamiya for me,” says shawky. “i just can’t take
the risk of any kind of virus. plus, now i’m saving more money.”
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