Livestock sector pinning hopes on Eid-ul-Azha
Anthrax is estimated to have caused a financial loss to cattle owners, traders and butchers of about Tk 3,200 crore, according to research undertaken by one of the country’s leading experts on livestock sector.
‘Anthrax resulted in more than 80 per cent reduction in the number of cattle that were sold by farmers between the third week of August and mid-October,’ said Dr Sharif Ahmed, a project co-ordinator of PKSF who had previously worked as the chief scientist at the National Livestock Research Institute.
He estimates that the loss to farmers was about Tk 2,000 crore, with 7,30,000 cattle remaining unsold at the end of Eid-ul Fitr. There was an additional loss of about Tk 1,200 crore to cattle-traders and butchers.
‘It is mainly the poor rural farmers, those who raise cattle as their main source of earning, who have borne the brunt of the financial loss,’ said Sharif. ‘Anthrax has been a big blow to the rural economy and its recovery will require many months, even after Eid-ul-Azha when sale of cattle reach their peak.’
Before anthrax was diagnosed in Bangladesh in the third week of August 2010, about 3,05,000 cattle on average were slaughtered each month for eating. This was reduced to about 10 per cent at the peak of the panic which lasted for about two months.
Butchers say that consumption of beef is yet to reach the normal level.
They fear that the price of animals will remain very low in the weeks before the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha, but they hope Eid will restore consumption of beef to the regular level.
Livestock researchers say that normally at least 40 per cent of the 4 million cattle that are slaughtered each year take place during Eid-ul-Azha, making it a crucial time for the rural economy.
Kawser Mia, a leader of the Meat Shop Owners Association in Dhaka, said that butchers in the capital and other parts of the country are eagerly waiting for Eid when they hope that meat sales will return to the normal level.
‘Like me, thousands of butchers have empty pockets, having had no work to do during several weeks of the anthrax horror. Our families will be in great distress if meat consumption does not pick up in Eid,’ he said.
However, things are not looking too good.
Syed Hassan Ali, a senior manager at Bengal Meat which is the country’s pioneer slaughtering house, said that in the past two weeks the average sales of beef have increased but only to about one-fifth of the normal level.
Shahinur Mondol, a commercial beef fattening farm owner in the northern district of Sirajganj, also told New Age that the trend in his area indicates that the price of cattle might remain at a record low level this year in spite of Eid.
Bengal Meat’s Ali agreed with him. ‘With farmers having a lot of unsold cattle, supply in the Eid market might be greater than demand, so the price will remain at a low level,’ he said.
Cattle owner Shahinur also told New Age that the government and the border guards should remain active in minimising the smuggling of Indian cattle into Bangladesh to prevent any further reduction in the price of cattle in the Eid markets.
Slaughtering of cattle and goats in Eid-ul-Azha is also a crucial source of rawhide to the export-oriented leather processing and footwear manufacturing industries.
Shipments of finished leather and leather footwear earned around half a billion US dollars for the country in the 2009-10 fiscal year.
In total, the slaughtering and sale of cattle represents more than 2 per cent of the total Gross Domestic Product of the country.
