Chicken feed
Animal protein is an important component of Ramadan meals, and chicken has long been an economic alternative to red meat. Lina Mahmoud discovers this is no longer the case
Price increases have hit basic commodities, chicken meat is no exception, and consumers are reacting accordingly. To illustrate this point, customers walking into one of the many downtown poultry butcher looking to buy chicken wings were seen leaving empty-handed; the prices seem to be too high. Sherif Mohamed, who works in a poultry store in the 6th of October satellite city, had a similar story to tell. "Our customers have taken to buying a single chicken instead of two. And I've also started halving the orders for the shop," he said. He also said he couldn't lower the prices. "On the contrary, when people stop buying, I end up having to increase the prices to compensate," he added.
The price of "white chicken" -- the mass produced and cheapest kind of poultry available on the market -- has increased from last year's price of LE5 per kilogramme to LE7 per kilogramme this year. Balady (farm) chicken is now LE8.25 per kilogramme and chicken fillet goes for the princely sum of LE18.30 per kilogramme, as opposed to last year's price of LE15. Many customers are moving away from buying whole chickens, but even the price of chicken wings has increased. A kilogramme of wings sells for LE8.50, and the same amount of chicken livers costs LE11.50.
Abul-Ela Shoeb is a poultry wholesaler who distributes chicken to downtown butcher shops. He is worried about the future of his business, saying that "the poultry trade is threatened because many chicken vendors are going bankrupt." He argues that part of the problem relates to the free market economy. "The state does not monitor the market. People can breed chickens any way they want and no monitoring takes place. All businesses that produce or import chicken-feed and additives are private," said Shoeb. He used to be a chicken producer, he said, but he lost most of his coup after he fed the birds spoiled feed. "I went to the police and filed a complaint against the dealer who sold me the feed, but nothing came of it. I've since sold the farm and now I trade in a smaller amount of poultry."
Ali Mansour, who also works in the poultry business, said the increase in the price of chicken meat can be traced back to imported fertilisers used in the production of yellow corn. This fertiliser rendered a large proportion of the yellow corn -- a basic component of chicken feed -- unfit for use. "This year we had to import the corn from the US. And the increase in the value of the US dollar pushed up the prices for chicken feed; a tonne of chicken feed is now LE1,250; it used to be LE800," said Mansour.
To deal with the spiralling prices in the chicken market, a poultry trading market was established by Abdel-Ghaffar Yousri three years ago. The effectiveness of this market at keeping prices stable, however, is debatable. Mansour argues that since chicken farm owners are not bound by the prices set by the trading market, it is basically ineffective. "So if 50 farms are supposed to sell to the trading market on a certain day, and if 25 decide not to sell, this means that the supply fails to meet the demand, which makes the price higher," he explained.
Shoeb also indicated that the structure of the trading market results in a conflict of interest. "Is it fair that those who fix the prices for the chicken are themselves chicken farm owners? These people can now easily control the market according to their own interests," he said. He also explained that although the Ministry of Agriculture monitors poultry price and quality at the small stores, "no one monitors the poultry farms".
Mansour Shehab is a farm owner and a poultry trader at the trading market in Banha, north of Cairo. He is furious about how things work, and he told Al-Ahram Weekly that he has completely lost faith in the business. "I stopped making money. I only lose money now," Shehab said. "A tonne of chicken now costs me LE1,600. Since the floating of the Egyptian pound last February I have lost LE50,000. All traders are in debt," he commented.
Sayed Ahmed, a chicken trader who owns a farm was negotiating the prices of chicken with another trader. He took time to point out that, "chickens are like tomatoes. Today they're cheap, tomorrow they're expensive. No one can predict the prices." He argues that the trading market does not regulate the price. "It's useless," he stated flatly.
And while the trading market remained busy, there were signs that all was not as well as it looked. Top officials at the market declined to grant the Weekly interviews, and one official even went as far as tearing this reporters notes into shreds.
Ali Ahmed Ali owns a small chicken feed outlet. He sells a kilogramme of chicken feed to local housewives for LE1.10. "No one understands what is happening and everything is so expensive. I purchase the goods for high prices, but my customers don't understand that I then have to resell the feed to them at even higher prices again," Ali added. While he was speaking, a customer walked in but walked out again empty-handed after learning the new prices. She told the Weekly it was "totally unfair" that everything has become so expensive.
The problems within the chicken industry means that many will be deprived of this cheap animal protein on which they have long depended. According to Shoeb, "there is no room for the poor in the free market. It makes the rich richer and the powerful even more powerful."
