The High Commission for Planning estimated that Moroccan families’ spending on sacrificial animals this year amounted to about 1.8 billion dirhams, as prices were affected by inflation, which particularly affected food commodities.
The delegate’s report confirmed that the level of inflation until last May was due to the prices of food commodities, which rose by 15.6 percent, while the prices of non-food commodities increased by 1.4 percent.
Eid al-Adha came in light of the rise in prices, which amounted to 7.1 percent, compared to the same month of last year, according to a report issued on June 20 on the consumer price index by the High Commission for Planning.
In a report on household spending on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the delegate indicated that meat prices increased by 21 percent between 2019 and 2023, explaining that those prices increased annually by 5 percent, which is a rate of 7.2 percent between 2021 and 2023.
She added that this increase has an impact on the price of sheep intended for sale for slaughter on Eid al-Adha, as the average price is estimated at $240 per head this year. Household spending on sacrificial meat has not stopped increasing.
In 2019, it was in the range of $1.54 billion, after the average price of the sacrifice reached $200, compared to $184 in 2013, an increase of 8.7 percent.
It is evident from the delegation’s report that spending on sacrificial meat represents 29 percent of the annual budget that families allocate to buy meat. However, that share rises to 32.6 percent for the poorest 20 percent of families and 25.5 percent for the 20 percent of the poor. the richest families.
Estimates had confirmed that the number of transactions in the sacrificial animal market in Morocco ranged between 1.1 and 1.3 billion dollars in the past years, and Bouazza Kharati, President of the Moroccan League for Consumer Rights, indicated in an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that this number will reach in the current Eid Al-Adha. to $1.5 billion.
He explained that this figure will be achieved if taking into account the level of demand estimated by the Ministry of Agriculture at about 5.6 million heads of sheep and goats, stressing that given the high price level, the average is within the range of $250 per head.
He explained that the prices of sacrificial animals rose on average by about $100 this year, sometimes reaching $600, knowing that given the level of supply that exceeds demand, prices were supposed to be lower, despite the high production costs.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests stated that the national supply of livestock prepared for Eid al-Adha reached 7.8 million heads, as it considered that supply sufficient, as it exceeds demand, which is around 5.6 million heads.
