Butchers in Riyadh and Jeddah complain about the skyrocketing price of red meat which has affected their sales badly. They attributed the rise in prices to the increase in the price of sheep by 100 percent as compared to the previous year. Another factor is the increase in the price of fodder forcing customers to switch to white meat, they said. Abdullah Al-Asmary, a butcher, said the skyrocketing price of sheep has not prevented him from buying sheep to meet the needs of his middle-class customers. He said until recently the price of one kilogram of mutton was SR30 but it has now jumped to more than SR50, adding that prices will continue to increase unless officials at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the mayoralties tighten control over the fodder and livestock markets. He said animal breeders and livestock merchants are to be blamed for the unjustifiable increase in the price of sheep. Sulaiman Al-Jabri, Chairman of the Livestock Committee at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Jeddah, said the red meat crisis in the local markets stems from the increase in the demand and the decrease in the supply of sheep. Many consumers stopped eating meat because they simply can't afford these prices. “The rise in the price of fodder at the local and international level has increased the price hike,” he said. He said the government has to intervene to bring down prices by offering subsidies to the importers and merchants alike as is the case in some neighboring countries. Marwan Helmi, president of Marwan International Trading Company said the company imported more than 870,000 tons of chilled and frozen meat from New Zealand, Australia, South America and the US in addition to some European countries in 2011, at a total cost of SR7.63 billion. He said some national companies have entered into partnership with the first ever Saudi company, which imports deer meat from New Zealand to markets in the Kingdom and Gulf countries pointing out that the diversification of meat products will bring down prices. The Security Food Committee at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce said a study showed that the local demand for red meat reached 430,000 tons in 2011 while the actual supplied quantities amounted to 177,000 tons which shows that there is a gap or shortage of 253,000 tons.
