In Egypt, butchers say they are shutting up shop as the costs of supplying goods to customers have risen so high that many have stopped buying and eating red meat, reports Mada Masr.com. With the rates suppliers are offering, butchers would have to hike the purchasing price for consumers still further, a move they fear might push customers to simply stop buying meat altogether. Livestock is increasingly expensive to raise due to the cost of feed. Many farmers aren’t planning to continue raising animals once they clear their current stock, he said, so if fodder prices remain high then there’s likely to be a scarcity of red meat on the market in the coming months.
Inflation in production costs, particularly the cost of fodder, means that many farms have actually already ceased to work. Around 85 percent of 6,000 low-income households participating in a November survey by the International Food Policy Research Institute on their consumption habits were already reporting reduced consumption of red meat.
To learn more about the results from the survey, read Food price shocks and diets among poor households in Egypt.