Red meat production in Iran's official slaughterhouses stood at 41,026 tons during the 10th month of the current Iranian year (Dec. 21, 2022-Jan. 20) to register an 18% decrease compared to the previous month and a 21% fall compared with last year’s same month.
According to the Statistical Center of Iran, beef accounted for 20,702 tons, or 50.5% of the overall meat production, indicating a year-on-year 28% drop.
A total of 16,673 tons of lamb (down 13% YOY), 2,795 tons of goat meat (down 7%) and 856 tons of meat from other types of livestock were produced during the month, accounting for 40.6%, 6.8% and 2.1% of the total output respectively.
A total of 189,034 tons of poultry meat were produced in Iran’s official slaughterhouses during the same period, registering a 6% decrease compared with last year’s corresponding period and a 5% decline compared with the previous month.
Chicken accounted for 185,487 tons or 98.1% of the overall production while other types of poultry, such as turkey, quail, ostrich and partridge, amounted to 3,547 tons or 1.9% of the overall poultry output during the period under review.
Over the past few months, Iran experienced a 20-30% drop in demand in the domestic poultry market, prompting farmers to scale down operations.
“The Iranian poultry farming industry has not been in the best shape for the past several years, but the last few months were the worst,” said Ataollah Hassanzadeh, CEO of Mazandaran poultry farmers union.
In December-January, the market evidenced a surplus of 15 million heads of chicken, with a value of up to 400 billion tomans ($0.95 million), he estimated. Rough calculations showed that demand slumped by 20-30%, Poultry World reported.
Plummeting consumption has forced poultry farmers to act. Hassanzadeh said producers had to remove hatching eggs from the production cycle.
This step comes with great pain for Iranian farmers since thousands of expensive eggs are wasted.
The sudden slump in demand is primarily attributed to a failed food industry reform embarked on by the Iranian authorities in 2022. The government revised state-subsidized exchange rate tariffs under which poultry farmers purchase feedstuff.
Hassanzadeh estimated that this step entailed a fivefold rise in the price of corn and soybeans, causing an unprecedented price hike in the broiler market.
Demand for red meat is estimated to have dropped even further, as it is priced well above chicken meat.
