New increases in chicken prices amid increasing demand for it during the summer.

Agadir24

Chicken prices have reached a new high, exceeding the 25 dirham barrier, at three dirhams per kilogram, which has sparked the denunciation and resentment of citizens who buy it as an alternative to red meat, whose prices also continue to soar.

A group of citizens considered that these increases exceed their purchasing power, especially since the majority of families depend on poultry for their nutrition, as an alternative to red meat, the price of which exceeded 150 dirhams for lamb, and between 110 and 120 dirhams for beef.

Amid these increases, citizens fear that the price of a kilogram of live chicken will reach record levels in the coming days, especially since poultry is their only alternative to red meat and fish, the prices of which are also high.

Increased demand and “sector constraints”

For his part, Abdel Rahman Al-Riyadi, Deputy Secretary-General of the National Association of Poultry Meat Producers, revealed that the new development that caused white meat to experience an increase this year is the high price of red meat, which led to pressure on white meat, coinciding with the heat wave that causes poultry to die and lose weight.

The athlete stressed that “prices usually rise during the month of August compared to other months, but this year the rise was exceptional, and this is due to the fact that the poultry sector has not recovered for years due to Covid-19 and the high cost of feed, which has caused some producers to stop production.”

The professional actor in the poultry sector noted that these factors combined to push up supply and demand, causing prices to rise.

Professionals disavow the increase

A number of professionals in the poultry sector confirmed that the price increase is beyond their control, as it is attributed to the increase in the prices of raw materials used in the production of feed, in addition to the increase in transportation costs, to which the price of fuel contributes.

They stopped at the rise in the prices of corn, soybeans and sunflowers in the international market, which constitute 80 percent of the components of poultry feed, as they continued their upward trend for more than a year, stressing that this affects the prices of compound feed, and thus increases the cost of production, as the price of one kilogram of chicken now costs them 18 dirhams.

This comes at a time when white meat is the most consumed by families, while Moroccan farms produce more than 600 thousand tons annually, including 500 thousand tons of chicken meat and 100 thousand tons of turkey meat.