The price of an average sheep could reach 1,500 dinars on the market for this year in 2024. Here archive photo, suburbs of Tunis, November 2011 © L’Express/Afp
The problem is, in the majority of cases, low-income families who go into debt to celebrate this holiday for reasons inherent to religion, but also social. To avoid gossip, especially in working-class neighborhoods, families bleed themselves to the four veins to buy sheep, to please the children, and also to do like the others.
Around mid-June, Tunisia will celebrate the festival of sacrifice, better known as Eid al-Adha. For this year, as has been the case in recent years, the price of sheep will inevitably exceed the average salary. In fact, many families will find themselves faced with a difficult dilemma: go into even greater debt or boycott this sheep which will cost them the eyes of their heads. Barely have the “budgetary” month of Ramadan and the festival of Eid el-Fitr passed that they have to face the enormous expenses linked to this festival associated with feasts. With weak or even average budgets already under strain, it is difficult to save money to celebrate this holiday as it should be. How to escape the debt spiral for average households? Should we opt for a boycott or should the Mufti of the Tunisian Republic intervene to better enlighten citizens on this subject?
It should first be noted that for several years, the upward trend in the price of red meat has been observed throughout the world. The cause is climate change and increasingly long periods of severe drought. As a result, breeders find themselves faced with great difficulties caused mainly by the increase in the price of fodder.
Unaffordable prices
From the outset, we must not have any illusions. All indicators indicate, until proven otherwise, that the price of an average sheep will not be within the reach of a large portion of citizens. According to Ahmed Amiri, president of the National Union Chamber of Butchers, the price of an average sheep could reach 1,500 dinars on the market. Confirmation of this upward trend also comes to us from the president of the Regional Union of Agriculture, Mounir Laabidi, who affirmed in a statement that in the governorate of Kef, “Prices will increase by more than 30% compared to 2023”. According to him “the price of sheep for Eid Al-Idha should rise to 1,700 dinars this year”. Enough to ask questions about celebrating Eid, otherwise called and rightly “Feast of Sacrifice”. Note that the average monthly salary in 2023 was estimated at 640 dinars, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
Recourse to credit logically constitutes the (temporary) lifeline for a large majority of Tunisians on such occasions. We recall, in this context, that the increase in outstanding household loans between 2015 and 2022 increased from more than 26 billion dinars in 2015 to 55.3 billion dinars in 2022, according to the Tunisian Institute of statistics (INS).
To highlight the upward trend in the selling price of red meat, Lotfi Riahi, president of the Tunisian Organization to Inform the Consumer (Otic), explains in a statement to The Press that this price in 2020 was set at 12,300 dinars/kilo live, in 2021 at 12,900, in 2022 at 14,900. In 2023, it rose to 17,800 dinars and in 2024, the price continues to rise at a time when the purchasing power of Tunisians continues to decline. This is about “the application of the fait accompli policy”he regretted.
Recourse to the importation of sheep is possible
The president of Otic mentioned as a solution the possibility of importing sheep to regulate prices on the market, to be in line with the president and CEO of the Ellouhoum company, Tarek Ben Jazia, who announced in a statement to the media that Tunisia intends to import sheep in anticipation of Eid El Idha, for the same reason mentioned by Lotfi Riahi. The latter, however, adds that at the same time, the selling prices of red meat must be lowered before Eid.
The Director General of Competition and Economic Investigations at the Ministry of Trade and Export Development, Houssem Eddine Touiti, for his part, confirmed in a statement that the State will try to regulate the market through imports. , while recognizing that the selling prices of red meat remain high throughout the world. He added that large quantities of meat (around 160 tonnes) will be injected into the front market by the Ellouhoum company.
Dar al-Iftaa invited to speak
The problem is, in the majority of cases, low-income families who go into debt to celebrate this holiday for reasons inherent to religion, but also social. To avoid gossip, especially in working-class neighborhoods, families bleed themselves to the four veins to buy sheep, to please the children, and also to do like the others. “The feast of sacrifice is no longer a matter of religious belief, but rather of tradition for certain families”, regrets Imam Khatib (religious authority) Sofien Ben Salah in a mosque in the northern suburbs. He declares to this effect that the feast of sacrifice is not obligatory, but it is a “sunna muakkada” for those who have the means according to Imam Malik. It is therefore one of the recommended and non-obligatory actions. However, anyone who is in a difficult financial situation should not go into debt, he explains. This is contrary to religious precepts. And it is the role of imams in mosques to raise awareness about these issues. But be careful, he warns, one should not party and spend huge sums of money in hotels and boycott the festival of sacrifice under the pretext of financial difficulties, he warns. For his part, Lotfi Riahi indicates that his association invited the Mufti of the Republic, Sheikh Hichem Ben Mahmoud, to speak on the festival of sacrifice with more details concerning the conditions which must be met to comply or not with the sacrifice ritual, particularly this year, due to the deterioration of purchasing power. He adds that it is the only institution authorized to express itself on this sensitive issue. Would Dar al-Iftaa be able to shed light on the question, especially since several families in precarious situations risk not being able to buy a sheep for the festival and in addition feel guilty? Double penalty!
