Meat has continued to rise in price despite popular calls for the boycott of butchers until prices return to normal levels. The retail price for a kilo of beef in Safaga has reportedly reached as high as LE50.
According to Youssef Hassan, head of Safaga’s veterinary quarantine, the city plans to import livestock from Africa to meet increasing demand for meat. "African livestock is safer than frozen Indian meat, although the latter is cheaper," he said.
In anticipation of stepped-up imports, Hassan has requested government permission to expand the quarantine’s capacity from 2000 to 10,000 heads of cattle.
In Gharbiya, per-kilo meat prices hit LE65, which local butchers attributed to rising fodder prices. The governor of Gharbiya has ordered the establishment of 23 additional state-run co-ops to sell subsidized meat at LE36 per kilo.
The governor of Minya, for his part, has ordered that the market be supplied with 25 tons of frozen Brazilian meat to be sold at LE20 per kilo.
Meanwhile, 800 heads of Sudanese cattle arrived in Abu Simbel on Wednesday. They will be slaughtered under Health Ministry supervision before being sold at LE30 per kilo.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
