File Photo: A butch hooking up the meat on a conveyor line in one of the slaughter houses in the city of Suez, Egypt. Al-Ahram.
During the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli followed up on a plan to overhaul 150 public slaughterhouses as a prerequisite before handing them over to the private sector for management and operation.
The plan consists of three phases and covers all governorates. The first phase, currently being executed, involves improving 41 slaughterhouses in 22 governorates, including a logistics slaughterhouse in Damietta.
Minister of Local Development Manal Awad told the meeting that the government is committed to optimising the utilisation of all newly developed or constructed slaughterhouses to maximise the yield on the investments made to upgrade them.
“The ministry encourages private companies with expertise in this field to operate the slaughterhouses using best practices to generate financial returns for the country,” Awad said.
Said Zaghloul, head of the Butchers’ Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce (CCC), noted that the benefits of such a move would be maximised only if qualified veterinary services were present at every slaughterhouse.
This would guarantee the quality of meat presented to the public, according to Zaghloul who also pointed out that the efficient management of the private sector would be to the public’s benefit.
“There are highly equipped public slaughterhouses that are out of service due to the lack of qualified or trained calibres using advanced equipment,” he said.
Private investors, according to Zaghloul, would improve the quality of service presented to the public, “as they are keen to make high profits.”
Zaghloul said he believed that meat prices will not be affected by the handover because prices are determined by supply and demand mechanisms.
Haitham Abdel-Basset, vice president of the Butchers’ Division at the CCC, believed that prices would increase when the private sector starts operating the slaughterhouses since businessmen are mainly driven by making more profits.
“The current cost of slaughtering a cow or a buffalo is only LE250 while sheep or goat is LE100. If investors interfere they will raise the figure, which will be reflected in the cost of meat,” Abdel-Basset said.
He suggested that the General Authority for Veterinary Services (GAVS) oversees the slaughterhouses to guarantee quality control, vaccination of livestock, and proper slaughtering practices since it is “the only entity in the country that is capable of doing this.” He added that the government should start hiring veterinarians in slaughterhouses until the development process is complete because there is a severe shortage in veterinary services.
Abdel-Basset noted that the prime minister’s decision was taken without consulting with the Butchers’ Division. “Accordingly, we know neither how the government would monitor their practices and prices nor the full impact of the move.”
* A version of this article appears in print in the 6 March, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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