Red Meat Price Policy in Egypt

摘要

There is a rapidly increasing gap between meat production and effective demand in Egypt, due in part to 'demand pull' factors, such as growth in purchasing power. In spite of increased imports of meat and various direct and indirect subsidies for red meat production, meat prices rose 12 percent between 1966 and 1978. The study analyzes the impacts of the government's current red meat price policies. Producer-trader, trader-retailer margins were computed and social costs of domestically produced meat were compared with imported meat costs. An important finding was that inflation in red meat prices may be due as much to cost-push as to demand-pull factors.