Tehran,Iran,Feb.23
Trend:
Recent livestock imports from Romania did not have much of an effect on reducing the beef price in Iran, while the consumption demand for red meat and chicken have fallen.
The red meat and chicken market have faced new ups and downs during recent weeks, because of the sudden rise of foreign exchange rate in the country. The smuggling of red meat, livestock and fish adds more to the problem.
"The recent imports from Romania did not have any effect on the meat price and the demand for red meat and chicken have fallen," said the boarding member of Central Union of Iran Animal Farmers Farhad Akbari in an interview with Trend.
At the same time, he said that the number of livestock importers is limited several people, so their actions can be supervised, to take some pressure off the livestock breeders.
"While they issue receipts that are based on official foreign exchange rate, they demand higher price to deliver the livestock," he added.
Akbari also went on to say that the imports of soy and animal feeds also affected the producers.
"During the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidential term, farmers received one kilo of animal feed for one kilo of milk, but now the milk exports are banned and so how can producers continue their work?," he said.
Meanwhile, the reports of Iranian media outlets indicate, that the livestock is slaughtered and packaged in western border villages of Iran and then smuggled outside the border, from Kurdistan province to Iraq.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Abdolmahdi Bakhshandeh has previously stated that Iran annually imports frozen beef from Brazil and last year it has imported fresh meat from central Asia and Australia.
"Frozen beef was previously imported for mass consumption at universities, military camps and hospitals so it did not enter the market and there was no fluctuations in the prices. However, in recent years, the working families are consuming frozen meat that previously wasn't in the government's policy," he said.
He indicated the abusive individuals are purchasing the livestock and sell it for the double the price in Iraq's Kurdistan, other eastern neighbors and Arab countries, therefore the smugglers obtain more money and so meat imports did not reduce the prices.