60% Decline in Red Meat Consumption Over Coronavirus

The consumption of red meat has seen a 60% decline following the outbreak of the new coronavirus and shutdown of restaurants and ceremony halls, among others, says the head of Iran’s Livestock Exporters National Assembly.
According to Mansour Pourian, restaurants, ceremony halls and hotels have the highest share of red meat consumption in Iran, especially during the Iranian New Year holidays (March 20-April 3), IRNA reported.
Cattle farms in Iran supplied 380,000 head of heavy livestock and some 2 million tons of milk to the market last winter (Dec. 22, 2019-March 19), according to the latest report released by 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, according to SCI.  
Mehdi Yousefkhani, the head of Tehran’s Union of Fowl and Fish Sellers, said earlier that there has been a 50% decline in chicken consumption in Iran following the COVID-19 outbreak.