Egyptians have begun scaling back the amount of chicken they eat each week amid astronomical price increases brought on by feed shortages.
Two hashtags calling for people to stop eating chicken garnered tens of thousands of posts on Egyptian social media this week.
Butchers have recorded an increase in demand for chicken feet and skeletons as consumers look for more affordable sources of protein.
“I now cook chicken or meat once a week. The rest of the week I make lentils or beans with sauce or eggplant — and I am not even one of the worst off,” said Manal Hamdy, 45, a mother-of-four in a poor neighbourhood in Greater Cairo.
A kilogram of chicken on Tuesday costs from 61 and 75 Egyptian pounds ($2 to $3), depending on the breed. Three months ago, the cost was 40 to 50 pounds, while at the same time last year 1kg cost 35 Egyptian pounds.
In Egypt, a chicken is weighed for sale while it is alive, before it is slaughtered, plucked and cleaned.
“A chicken weighs around a third less after it is cleaned,” said Ms Hamdy. "To feed my family of six, you need at least two kilograms of meat for one meal."
Chicken feet on the menu
Demand for chicken feet has risen in the country following a Facebook post by Egypt’s National Institute for Nutrition, a state-owned centre, calling it an “affordable” source of protein.
The post was met with anger by millions on social media, outraged that because of the economic crisis, Egyptians were having to eat lower-quality food.
“I used to have to throw a lot of the chicken feet to the street dogs around my shop or sell them to dog-owners. Now people are buying them in large amounts,” said Omar Mohamed, who owns a poultry butcher shop in Giza.
“A lot of customers are also buying chicken skeletons and bones. They boil them with onions and such to make broth they can have with bread or rice.”
Experts do not anticipate a boycott of chicken products to be successful as they constitute 70 per cent of animal protein eaten by Egyptians, according to Tharwat El Zeity, vice-president of the Egyptian Poultry Association (EPA).
Mr El Zeity told a popular talk show that chicken prices are at the mercy of how much corn and soybeans, the two main components of chicken feed, are released from the nation's ports each week. He said all signs point to further price hikes over the next few months.
A shortage in foreign currency from Egypt’s import-heavy economy has prevented chicken feed producers from being able to bring in the necessary amounts of corn and soybeans, which has forced prices up for chicken farmers, many of whom have either shut down operations or scaled down significantly.
One year ago, one tonne of chicken feed cost around 9,000 Egyptian pounds ($325), Mr El Zeity said. It now costs more than 21,000 Egyptian pounds, he said.
He said high prices have forced farmers to operate at a loss, forcing many of them shut down operations altogether or cull hundreds of chickens they cannot afford to feed.
To meet the chicken demands of its 104 million population, Egypt has to import 900 tonnes of chicken feed components per month, which costs more than $680 million.
A 90 per cent drop in the value of the Egyptian pound against the dollar, following three consecutive currency devaluations in 2022 and rising global food prices because of Russia’s war with Ukraine, Egypt’s two largest grain suppliers, have significantly increased inflationary pressures on Egyptian consumers and producers.
Poultry producers' union calls for government intervention
Since March, Egypt’s government has placed strict controls on every kind of import to prevent the departure of US dollars from its economy, resulting in a wealth of goods piling up at the country’s ports.
The EPA has frequently appealed to the government to make corn and soybeans a strategic food source, with fixed prices and government administered reserves giving it the same status as rice.
“We have asked the government repeatedly to use all its tools to bring down the prices of chicken feed, which it has not done yet,” Mr El Zeity said. “It used to import corn and soybeans through the Agriculture Ministry's development bank, which would sell them to farmers at reasonable prices.”
The problem has been exacerbated by grain importers who corner the market by withholding wares and selling them at higher prices during times when no goods are being released from the nation’s ports.
Traders warned on prices
These importers have continuously defended their actions, saying they cannot always secure enough dollars from banks to pay for shipments, which forces them to resort to the black market where dollars are worth up to 30-35 Egyptian pounds, which is significantly higher than the official exchange rate.
The government has repeatedly warned merchants against profiteering and cornering the market. To combat the price increases, the government — in collaboration with the armed forces, which owns and runs a large number of food production operations — has begun offering discounted goods at state-owned food outlets.
The military on Monday said it would be selling 3 million food packages in the run-up to Ramadan. The packages, which comprise basics such as sugar, rice and cooking oil, would be sold at half price.
