Government follows up securing meat supplies ahead of Ramadan

CAIRO – 6 April 2017: Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail held a meeting Wednesday to follow up on procedures aimed at importing additional quantities of meat and poultry to meet an increasing demand ahead of and during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins in May, according to a Cabinet statement.

Egypt’s total imports of red meat, poultry and fish stand at an average of 630,000 tons annually including 350,000 tons of frozen and fresh red meat, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Veterinary Services General Authority in April.

Ismail met Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Abd El-Moneim El Banna and Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali El-Moselhi to ensure the procedures of importing meat and poultry are going well and will occur in time to meet the local market’s needs before Ramadan, the statement added.

“Egyptians’ meat consumption jumps 25 percent in Ramadan, compared with the average rates during the rest of year,” head of Al-Jazeera Meat Importing Co. Sherif Ashour told Egypt Today.

The meeting came a couple of days after the Ministry of Agriculture's precautionary suspension of importing frozen meat from Brazil, the biggest exporter of frozen meat to Egypt, on suspicion of spoiled products.

Egypt is 90 percent self-sufficient in poultry and 60 percent in red meat. The main meat exporters to Egypt are Brazil, India, Australia, New Zealand, Sudan, USA, Ukraine, Italy, France, Spain, Ireland, Poland and Canada.

Ismail said his government is committed to providing all basic commodities at affordable prices to citizens through distribution points nationwide, while piling up strategic stocks and combating monopoly attempts at the same time to protect the most vulnerable, according to the statement.