A plan to boycott beef by Egypt's fast food restaurants in protest against skyrocketing prices went awry Monday as most of these restaurants continued to serve red meat in their bid not to lose their customers. Fast food outlets in Cairo and other governorates served meals, containing beef, while millions of clients converged to buy hamburger, meat ball, and shish kebab sandwiches. “Everything is as normal as it used to be,” said Kamal Sayed, the manager of a fast food restaurant in central Cairo. “Our boycott will change nothing,” he told the Egyptian Mail in an interview Monday. Scores of fast food restaurants had vowed to refrain from buying and serving beef to their customers to protest rising prices. A shortage of local produce and a mixture of beef cattle farmers' and butchers' greed has sent the prices of beef skyrocketing. A kilo (almost two and a half pounds) of beef can sell for 70 Egyptian pounds (almost US$ 12). This is so heavy on the pockets in a country where all estimates put more than 40 per cent of the 80 million population under the poverty line. The Government has tried to take measures to bring the prices of beef a little bit down, including importing huge amounts of it from countries like Ethiopia, but the fury of the prices seems to be so far away from calming down. Officials from the Chamber of Tourist Establishments Monday said only 1,350 out of a total of 6,000 restaurants took part in the campaign to boycott the beef. The nation's hotels announced that they would not join in because they had obligations to travel agents and their clients, according to Wasim Mohieddin, the chairman of the Chamber for Hotels. Large swaths of the population in Egypt, however, have already unwillingly taken part in the boycott, because they do not have enough money to buy the beef. “I stopped buying it a long time ago,” said Qenawi Sarhan, a street seller from Cairo. “I'll not die if I don't eat beef,” he told this newspaper. Outlets selling Ethiopian beef for 28 Egyptian pounds (US$ 5) per kilo, saw thousands of Egyptians fighting for their places in endless lines in front of them. The Ethiopian beef seems to have given Egyptians respite from the unaffordable prices of local beef. To compensate for unattainable beef proteins, many in Egypt have turned to fish and poultry, whose prices also started to rise, according to news reports. Inside most of the nation's fast food restaurants, however, everything was more than normal. Clients took their places at the tables inside these restaurants and ordered their delicious sandwiches and meals. “Everything is as expensive as it used to be,” said Gomaa Hassanein, a waiter at one of downtown Cairo's fast food restaurants. “Why should people take action now?” he asked. While the Consumer Protection Agency, a governmental watchdog, said the campaign to boycott meat continues, Mohamed Wahba, head of the Butchers Section at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, said the move would not bring about a drop in meat prices. "This boycott is fruitless as far as prices are concerned," he said. Importers have warned that the crisis might deepen since a two-month ban on sea fishing is due to be implemented in Egypt starting from May.
