A total of 94,900 tons of red meat were produced in Iran’s officially registered slaughterhouses during the fourth quarter of last fiscal year (Dec. 22, 2019-March 19), registering a 16% increase compared with the corresponding period of the year before and a 17% increase over the preceding quarter (Sept. 23-Dec. 21, 2019), the Statistical Center of Iran reported.
Beef accounted for the lion’s share of the output with 49,600 tons, accounting for 52.3% of Q4 red meat production, followed by lamb with 36,300 tons (38.3%), goat meat with 6,700 tons (7%) and meat from other livestock with 2,300 tons (2.4%).
According to Ahmad Moqaddesi, the head of Cattle Farmers Association, more than 130,000 tons of red meat were imported into Iran last year (March 2019-20), Tasnim News Agency reported last month.
“This comes as red meat consumption in Iran hovers around 900,000 tons and domestic production reaches 880,000 tons annually. The government should have imported 20,000 tons rather than 130,000 tons,” he said.
Exports of livestock have been banned since last year, because of which production has increased significantly and producers are facing excess supply.
Moqaddesi called on the government to lift the ban on exports.
“The consumption of red meat has seen a 60% decline following the outbreak of the new coronavirus and the shutdown of restaurants and ceremony halls, among others,” the head of Iran’s Livestock Exporters National Assembly said recently.
Mansour Pourian added that restaurants, ceremony halls and hotels have the highest shares in red meat consumption in Iran, especially during the Iranian New Year holidays (March 20-April 3).
Cattle farms in Iran supplied a total of 380,000 head of heavy livestock and some 2 million tons of milk in winter (Dec. 22, 2019-March 19), according to the Statistical Center of Iran.
There were a total of 4.5 head of heavy livestock in Iran’s cattle farms in winter. A total of 537,000 calves were born in these farms over the same period, SCI had reported in an earlier report.
