WITH the approach of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, when peopletraditionally eat more, the Government always starts preparing to caterfor the expected shortage of commodities like meat, importing them in huge quantities. The Government is accustomed to tackling food shortages with the easiest solution, although it is a costly one – importing – rather increasing local production of such commodities. The chronic meat problem cannot be resolved by importing more frozen meat and livestock from different countries, which puts a huge strain on the Treasury, while much of the meat goes rotten and is, therefore, unfit for human consumption. The State, that is no longer responsible for importing such commodities itself, doesn't have a strong watchdog to supervise the importing and marketing of such commodities. Therefore, we often read in the local press about shipments of rotten meat or livestock turning up at our ports. Al-Ahrar opposition newspaper recently published a front-page story about a shipment of 900 bulls from Australia, that had been used for bullfighting, arriving in Egypt. Each of these bulls weighed over a tonne and experts said that they were not fit for human consumption because they had been fed steroids to help them withstand the painful injuries they suffer in this sport. These bulls were 10 years old, while imported livestock shouldn't be over two years old. So, why this insistence on neglecting animal breeding projects? Why not use more Egyptian buffalo meat and milk to meet local needs? Egyptian buffaloes are among the best in the world and Egyptians like their milk as much as cows' milk. However, there is such an insistence on cows' milk for dairy products here that many Egyptians resort to the unpasteurised buffalo milk that they buy from small shops or the farmers themselves. What we need is a national project to boost buffalo meat and its dairy products, so we can cut down on imports of meat and livestock.
