PERSISTENT POLITICAL TURBULENCE TAKES ITS TOLL ON EGYPTIAN ECONOMY

       Cairo, 7 Dzul Hijja 1434 / 12 October 2013 ( MINA ) – The Egypt Persistent political turbulence has taken its toll on the economy. This is nowhere more strongly felt than here in Al-Madbah, southeastern Cairo where hundreds of people in dozens of shops and tents do nothing but slaughter animals, which they sell throughout the year.

       This should be the high season for Gamal Ahmed, a 59-year-old butcher from Sayeda Zeinab, a poor residential neighborhood in southeastern Cairo that boasts the country’s oldest provisionally-licensed slaughterhouse.

        Ahmed, however, has been twiddling his thumbs ever since coming to his tent-shop in Al-Madbah (Arabic for ‘slaughterhouse’) in the early hours of Thursday.

        A man approached the tent, in which slabs of red meat had been prominently displayed on a wooden counter.

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        Ahmed hurried toward the man, mistaking him for a potential customer.

         But he was in for a big disappointment – the man was simply lost and needed directions to a nearby hospital.

        “Business is going from bad to worse,” fumed Ahmed, who wore a flowing white galabiya, traditional Egyptian garb with no collar or buttons and wide sleeves, which had almost turned red from all of the slaughtering.

          “It was a thousand times better a few years ago,” Ahmed said, according to Anadolu Agency report monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).

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          Eid al-Adha, the Islamic feast that marks the end of the annual Hajj season, begins in Egypt on Tuesday, October 16.

          Muslims who can afford it should sacrifice a sheep or share in sacrificing a cow or a camel in a ritual commemorating Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to obey God’s command by sacrificing his son Ismail.

           But in what should be a high season for butchers, local demand for beef is falling amid deteriorating economic conditions and an ongoing recession.

Political turbulence has taken its toll on the economy

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          Persistent political turbulence has taken its toll on the economy. This is nowhere more strongly felt than here in Al-Madbah, where hundreds of people in dozens of shops and tents do nothing but slaughter animals, which they sell throughout the year. The sight of blood on Al-Madbah’s unpaved streets and alleyways has always been a part of the experience of visiting the area.

         The smell of animals – slaughtered and live – is thick in the air.

          Beef shops take their place side by side, turning the entire district into one big slaughterhouse with carcasses dangling outside shop entrances.

          As for the butchers, most of them sit outside their shops looking painfully at the attractive beef on display in the almost total absence of clients, longing for the good old days of political stability and bustling market activity.

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          Inside one shop, Ahmed al-Halawani, veteran butcher and sheep trader, gripped his water pipe tightly.

          “Last year I sold every day double the amount of beef I’m selling now,” al-Halawani told AA. “There was money. People weren’t afraid to take money out of their pockets.”

          But it isn’t only about Egyptians’ fear of spending the little money they have, he added.

          “It’s also difficult to bring animals from farms in other provinces,” he noted, referring to the country’s precarious security situation.

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          “The roads are no longer safe,” he said.

          A friend of al-Halawani lost animals to the tune of 250,000 Egyptian pounds (roughly $36,127) in an armed robbery on the road a few days ago.

          Ahmed, the other butcher, decided to go the extra mile to attract customers.

         “I have lowered prices in hopes that this will encourage customers to come,” he explained.

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         He now sells veal for 45 Egyptian pounds per kilo (roughly $6.5) and lamb for 55 pounds (about $7.9).

         But even though these are below market prices, few customers visit his shop.

         “This isn’t helping. What else can I do?” he asks, bracing for further losses. (T/P04/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)

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