Egypt's chicken prices fall after government imports frozen birds
Newspaper Title: https://www.thenationalnews.com/
Newspaper Number:
Tuesday - 28 February 2023
After steadily rising over the past year, chicken prices in Egypt fell for the first time this week following the government's import of more than 100,000 tonnes of frozen chicken from Brazil.
The imported chicken went on sale early last week at outlets operated by the Ministry of Supply and the armed forces, which sell food at discounted rates to low-income Egyptians, and at chain hypermarkets.
Demand for the frozen chicken, which costs about 35 per cent less than fresh, locally raised poultry, was high, especially because recent price increases have made beef and chicken unaffordable for many.
“We laid out the chicken in the market’s fridges on Thursday; by Saturday, there wasn’t one left and we had to restock,” Mohamed Omar, a worker at a hypermarket in Cairo’s Maadi district, told The National.
By Monday morning, sellers of local birds had lowered their prices by about 10 Egyptian pounds.
Chicken prices have increased by a larger percentage than other food items. Last year, a shortage of feed created by government import restrictions led many producers to quit the industry, resulting in a drop in supply that in turn raised prices.
Poultry farmers have warned for some time that the industry is on the verge of collapse and have repeatedly asked the government to step in and subsidise corn and soybeans, the two main components of chicken feed.
