Laura Bashraheel Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Saudi consumers have started a campaign on social media to boycott chicken to protest a sudden hike in prices. The campaign started on Twitter and Facebook then spread to other social media channels such as WhatsApp and Blackberry messenger calling on people to stop buying chicken for one week. The consumers are also asking the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to intervene to rein in “greedy traders”. According to the campaign, titled “Let it rot”, prices have increased by 50 percent. One of the campaign's slogans is “one hand to fight corruption and high prices”. On Twitter, consumers floated different ideas to make the boycott effective. Some believed if the boycott worked for one week, the chicken would rot and the traders would learn their lesson and bring down the prices. Not just the chicken prices have gone up; prices of eggs jumped from SR10 to as high as SR16. “There are many replacements for chicken such as fish, beef and vegetables,” one consumer tweeted. But others disagreed saying the boycott would not produce any positive results while some said they could not stop eating chicken for a week. “If you wish to boycott chicken, then be vegetarians as fish is more expensive and meat is just the same,” wrote a tweeter. Others mocked the campaign saying there have been so many consumer boycotts in the past and but none of them were effective. “Saudi is the No. 1 source for oil and boycott campaigns,” read one tweet. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has so far not issued any statement regarding the price rise. But Minister of Agriculture Fahd Balghunaim said recently that the price rise was irreversible as there was a huge shortfall in the production of chicken, which currently meets only 45 percent of local demand.?He said the ministry had nothing to do with the increase in prices, adding the prices were governed by market forces.
