by Marwa Yahya
CAIRO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- "Demand for sacrificial livestock is very weak this year because of the relatively high prices and decline in supply," said Hussein Abdel-Rahman, chairman of the Egyptian farmers' syndicate, noting the COVID-19 crisis has impacted the related markets in different ways.
The prices of inputs such as medicine and fodder in raising the animals have increased because most of them are imported from abroad, Abdel-Rahman told Xinhua.
Meanwhile, the decreasing prices of beef this year also have forced the small animals' feeders to quit producing new breeds, which highly reduced the number of the offered animals, he added.
He attributed the weakness of the purchase force across the country to the reluctance of feeders despite the government's incentives of low-interest loans.
Eid al-Adha, a significant religious festival of Islam, will start on July 20, coinciding with the Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to the Saudi holy city of Mecca.
Known as the Festival of the Sacrifice, Eid al-Adha is marked to commemorate the prophet Ibrahim's readiness to sacrifice his son in order to demonstrate his dedication to God.
The animals to be sacrificed during the feast are usually goats, sheep, cows or camels, separated into three parts of which at least one third must go to the poor.
However, "demand for the animals this year is very low compared to the years before the spread of the pandemic," agreed Fares Othman, who has been raising and selling sacrificial livestock over the past 24 years.
"Sales until now are less than average, as I have only reached 35 percent of the target," Othman said, adding prices of fodder increased by 100 percent compared with 2020.
The clients who used to take two rams only buy one now, he said.
After shopping around in a big market in southern Cairo, Mostafa Abdel Aal, a 49-year-old teacher, bought a sheep only with 4,600 Egyptian pounds (293 U.S. dollars).
"My income has been cut since the spread of COVID-19 in 2020, so I have decided to limit the cost of this year's sacrificial animal," he explained, noting he needed to save money so that he could afford the salaries of the employees in his company.
Ashraf Moataz, a 58-year-old employee in an electricity distributing company, decided to share a cow with five others.
"Without sacrificing a cow, my family won't feel the beauty of the feast," he said, while bargaining with another buyer on sharing the payment.
"Witnessing the process of distributing the beef to poor people and cooking them for my family is the joy of the feast," Moataz told Xinhua.
Egypt reported on late Wednesday 89 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total infections in the North African country to 283,409 including a death toll of 16,418, according to the country's health ministry. Enditem