TEHRAN, Iran, Dec.23
Trend:
Iran is ready to supply 250,000 heads of livestock to the market and provide new solution to address problems on the red meat market, said an official in Animal Breeding Center of Iran.
"Due to large number of livestock, there have been discussions with the Iran Veterinary Organization to implement animal health protection measures and prevent diseases," said Mokhtar Ali Abbasi, Trend reports citing Mehr News Agency.
"Three ways have been offered to preserve the market balance, that can be implemented if approved by officials," Ali Abbasi said.
"The first way is to reduce or halt imports of red meat import; this will effect the market in one or two months, since the volume of import was considerable. The high demand caused increase in imports a while ago," the official said.
"The second approach is to guarantee purchase of animal products by the government. In our opinion, this is the best solution, since it has been successfully implemented earlier for purchase of raw milk," Ali Abbasi added.
"Third way is to limit export, although we do not agree with it. However, this option has been suggested considering that in next two months, the domestic demand increase will be balanced on the market," he said.
Last Iranian year (March 21, 2018 - March 21, 2019), the country has produced about 895,000 tons of red meat in last Iranian year, while more than 160,000 tons of the product were imported from Brazil, Australia and Romania.
Smuggling of domestic livestock out of Iran, mainly to Iraq, due to devaluation of national currency, has caused the increase of meat prices in Iran, and long queues are observed at markets, where people can buy imported meat at official prices.