EGYPT – Egyptian meat industry has expanded its supply sources by signing a contract to import cattle and frozen meat from five countries, Sudan, Djibouti, Tanzania, Uganda, and India.
According to the Minister of Supply and Internal Trade, Ali Moselhi, the deal is aimed to secure the population’s demand for meat at low prices since local meat prices have been increasing due to the global food crisis.
“The country will receive 1,000 tons of frozen meat from India will arrive this month, and Egypt will import 25,000 cattle from other countries,” he said.
Moselhi also noted that Sudan and Djibouti will supply Egypt with 5,000 and 10,000 cattle heads, respectively, soon.
He added that Egypt is also anticipating the arrival of 5,000 live sheep from Tanzania and 5,000 frozen lambs from Uganda and is also set to receive 5,000 tons of frozen meat from Brazil as per previous agreements.
The ministry blamed the scarcity of feed for the surge in meat prices in Egypt, causing market issues and concerns for buyers and hence the government is seeking to broaden its meat sources to alleviate supply shortages.
This follows the country’s move to seek alternative meat imports to cover up the gap developed by the Sudanese military conflict which limited the supply of Sudanese meat in the Egyptian local market.
Sudan which is the main supplier of Egyptian fresh beef and one of the largest exporters of cattle to this destination with shipments of 10,000 tonnes of meat and 110,000 head. animals in 2022, paralyzed the flow of trade with the country’s trading partners.
According to a report from the USDA, food prices in Egypt are expected to see a striking surge due to limited food supply amid the conflicts in Sudan.
The report was echoed by a joint report from the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and the Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN).
Data from the trending economy report, the value of imports of meat of bovine animals and frozen meat to Egypt totaled US$ 1 billion which accounted for 1.26% of total import flow to Egypt which amounted to US$79 billion in 2022.
Earlier this year Egypt looked to increase poultry and beef imports from Brazil to cover the domestic demand.
Analysts indicated that although the African country had a large livestock import program it seemed to have changed its priorities in the last months.
“In response 42 Brazilian processing units, of which 27 are poultry plants have been approved to export to Egypt,” announced the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture.
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