Butchers say they are not against the meat boycott campaign launched by civil society associations. Some butchers say they hope the campaign will succeed, and that it is the cattle farmers who have increased prices.
“I’ve been a butcher for 17 years, and I say we butchers suffer more than the consumers from the rising prices that we have to pay the cattle raisers,” said Qutb Hassan. “The problem is that there is no government control over female cattle slaughter.”
“Not all people will stop buying meat, and we butchers must continue to sell at those prices otherwise we lose what we paid the cattle raisers,” he added.
Hassan, another butcher, said: “I had to close down for a whole month when sales went down. That’s why I hope the boycott will bring down prices and I can go back into business.”
“When the poor protest against soaring prices our ruling party MPs call for them to be shot, instead of trying to do something about it,” said Ahmed Farag, another butcher, referring to recent comments from a ruling party NDP that police should use live ammunition to disperse protesters.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
