Soaring Sheep Prices Force Moroccans to Seek Alternatives for Eid al-Adha Sacrifice

It’s a rush in the slaughterhouses. Faced with the general rise in sheep prices for Eid, many Moroccans living in Tetouan and other cities in the kingdom have stormed the slaughterhouses in recent days to buy meat by the kilo, reports the website Al3omk. The kilo of mutton costs between 120 and 150 dirhams and the price per kilogram of beef varies between 100 and 120 dirhams in Tetouan and its surroundings, while the prices of sheep reach 3000 dirhams and can reach more than 7000 dirhams and those of kids are around 2000 or even 4000 dirhams.

Mustapha.R, a family man and employee in Tetouan, says he is unable to buy the sheep for the sacrifice due to "extreme expensiveness". The cheapest sheep he says he found cost 3,000 dirhams, while previously it would have cost less than 1,500 dirhams to acquire it. Like him, there are many Moroccans who are suffering from the dizzying rise in sheep prices. Some are also opting for a kid at a reasonable price rather than a sheep. But the prices of kids are also starting to rise due to the rush for this option.

"The unprecedented drought that our country has experienced in recent years has had a significant impact on the agricultural sector, particularly with regard to the national livestock, both in terms of numbers and productivity, due to imbalances in the reproduction cycles," the Minister of Agriculture, Mohamed Sadiki, recently explained to Parliament. According to him, the soaring prices of sheep "are due to the increase in the production costs of red meat due to the deterioration of the vegetation cover of the pastures and the decrease in forage production, as well as the increase in the prices of feed by about 70%".