After months of anticipation, the first shipment of Sudanese beef found its way into government-run food outlets in mid-October, just in time for Ramadan. The shipment arrived much to the delight of hard-up consumers, who had been facing prices as high as E 40 per kilo for local and imported beef.
After over a year of negotiations, Egypt finalized a semi-barter deal with Sudan on September 22 for the import of beef from Sudan in exchange for Egyptian consumer goods and monetary compensation. According to the agreement, Egypt is to import between 20,000 and 30,000 tons of Sudanese beef annually.
Fouad Ibrahim, the economic attach at the Sudanese embassy in Cairo, was quoted in the state press in late September as saying that 200 tons of freshly slaughtered Sudanese beef would be sent north every week. The shipments would eventually increase. He added that the agreement, signed between two public sector enterprises, Sudan's Al-Kimaiya company and Egypt's Meditrade, called for Sudan to export the meat at a surprisingly low $1,200 a ton.
However, the shipments were long in coming, and contradictory statements from officials fueled suspicion that the deal was off. "I kept reading that the Sudanese meat would be coming on the market," said Hany Mabrouk, a taxi driver from Boulak. "But the newspapers kept giving new shipment dates. I had a hard time believing the meat would be in Egypt for Ramadan."
But it did arrive. Government food outlets that displayed the cheaper beef, which sells at just E 15.50 a kilo versus E 30-40 a kilo for local and other imported meat, sold out within hours. "People from all walks of life are buying the meat because of the very reasonable price," explained Mahmoud Abdel Rahman, manager of a government co-op in Shobra. "I have been getting 200 to 300 kilos a day, but the number of customers is exceeding a thousand daily. Given the limited supply, we have had to limit each customer to a kilo a day."
While Abdel Rahman was confident that more supplies would be made available soon, he guessed that the government would have to initiate a ration-card policy to ensure that the meat was going to the lowest-income segments of the economy. "I heard they might issue supply cards with a two-kilos-per-week limit," he said.
Meanwhile, some observers have questioned the quality of the sub-Saharan meat. Health concerns over beef are prevalent, especially after the outbreak of "mad cow" disease, which plagued some western European beef suppliers in recent years, was given wide coverage by the local press.
Questions as to the beef's safety, however, were quickly dispelled by Dr. Hassan Eidaross, head of Egypt's General Organization for Veterinary Services (GOVS). "The GOVS must first inspect and approve the Sudanese abattoirs concerned. An Egyptian veterinary inspection team is dispatched to Sudan to inspect livestock before slaughter," Eidaross explained in an Al-Ahram Weekly interview, "The necessary tests are to be conducted in Sudanese laboratories. The animals are then slaughtered according to GOVS specifications."
Additionally, Abdel Rahman was keen to dispel the widespread myth that cheaper Sudanese meat implies lower quality. "The percentage of fat in the meat is almost none because Sudanese cattle graze on grass," he said. "The quality is equal, if not better, than local beef, which is fed on hormone-enhanced fodder."
Some consumers have even expressed a preference for the Sudanese beef over its more expensive imported counterparts from the West. "I prefer Sudanese meat because it's organically grown," said Amira Saad, a housewife from Boulak. "Even if it weren't cheaper than other imports, I would still buy it because I worry about diseases coming from American and European companies."
Although Sudanese beef has yet to successfully gain a foothold in the Egyptian market, there are some fears that cheaper Sudanese beef could eventually threaten the local livestock industry with stiff competition. Most observers, though, doubt a price war is in the offing, as, according to meat traders, the real cost of Sudanese meat is far higher than the price brokered in the recent deal.
Additionally, observers note that there simply isn't enough Sudanese beef to currently challenge Egyptian producers. "It's unlikely that local butchers will lower their prices at this time, since the amount of imported meat available in government outlets is limited," explained Abdel Rahman. "Plus, even if they [private importers] were to broker more deals for Sudanese meat, it would be considerably more expensive than it was in the deal engineered by the government."
David Snipes
© Business Monthly 2004
