Veterinary Services: Meat prices will not fall under the 1,200 DZD
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Public consumption of red meat index noticed a terrible decline in recent years, according to the Veterinary Services statistics due to a decline in the purchasing power, as the production of abattoirs in Algiers reached only 90 heads of cattle per day, which allows a constant rising in prices to the maximum levels since four years.
Abdelhalim Yousefi, told APS, that Hussein Dey, Rouiba and Harrach abattoirs in addition to the private abattoir in Calitous and Slaughterhouses in Bordj Bahri and Zeralda, noticed during 2014 the slaughtering of 32,000 heads of cattle at the rate of 90 slaughter daily.
Cattle slaughter operations declined since 2010 to reach its lowest level in 2014, despite the fact that the capacity of these structures allow the reception of larger numbers of cattle, the source added.
“Cause of this decline back to the growing demand for imported frozen meat, and also due to the weak of the purchasing power of citizens because the price per kilogram of red meat, both for cattle or sheep, does not usually decline under 1,200 DZD.”
Algiers abattoirs do not have the required standards for the exercise of this activity because they are ancient, in addition to their location in center of cities, as a result of urbanization, which hinders the activity of distributors and dealers as they have become a nuisance for residents, especially because of odors.
Algiers, which is currently provided with red meat from the various cities of the country, like Medea, Tizi Ouzou, Bouira, Ain Defla and Batna, etc., may be compensated by all these abattoirs and slaughterhouses in one abattoir, which contains the necessary conditions for modern abattoir, both in terms of capacity or means.
Over 840 tons of red meat quantity equaled cattle that have been slaughtered at the level of these structures during 2014, compared with 3,165 tonnes of sheep meat after slaughter of 167.000 heads during the same period.
With regard to the white meats, over 50 poultry slaughterhouses in Algiers noticed the slaughter of more than 2.5 million poultry, which is equivalent to 4.5 million kg, compared to the slaughter of nearly 190.000 turkeys, which is equivalent to 2 million tons of meats.