Bahrain Livestock Company suffers huge loss
The country’s only meat importer’s losses have been estimated to be around BD700,000, since the meat subsidy removal decision was implemented last month.
After implementing the decision on October 1, fewer consumers were tending to buy fresh meat, as the price was hiked by almost 350 per cent. In a statement issued yesterday, the Bahrain Livestock Company (BLC) said it was bearing huge losses.
The company said sales at Manama central meat market had dropped to less than 5pc, while butchers at Muharraq central meat markets chose to halt their business until further notice.
“Few procedures were taken by the BLC to refresh the meat trade in the country.
The BLC reduced the newly- introduced prices to cost prices and later to below-cost prices, with the aim of making this key product accessible for the public. The company has also imported new types of frozen meat that cost less,” the statement read.
The BLC revealed that accumulation of cattle heads at its stockyards was costing it thousands of dinars on a daily basis, explaining that cattle feed alone costs more than BD5000 daily, in addition to other related issues such as deaths among the animals and, wages of technicians and workers at the slaughterhouse as well as other administrative expenses.
“Considering these situations, the company’s board decided to reduce the prices of locally slaughtered sheep to BD1.8 per kilogramme and introduced attractive offers to customers. A free slaughtered sheep is offered to buyers who purchase 10 sheep, giving traders the opportunity to reduce the cost of purchasing to BD1.650,” BLC stated.
The company estimated the losses to be around BD600,000 to BD700,000 or more, considering the importing fees, cattle feed cost and other expenses.
However, the company also said that sales have been slightly improving by the beginning of November, in line with the implementation of the new prices.
It announced that a total of 5318 livestock heads and 99835kgs of frozen meat were sold during the first week of this month. At the same time, the BLC added that these quantities are 25pc of the stocks sold before October 1.
Assuring that it will continue to pump meat products into local markets despite the huge losses, the company said it’s planning to provide more fresh locally slaughtered meat products in the market. They added that they would temporarily halt importing frozen meat, as the demand on locally slaughtered meat is on the rise.
As announced earlier, the Cabinet implemented the subsidy redirection decision on October 1, removing subsidies allocated for meat products. The government also initiated a financial compensation plan for citizens, depositing allowances of BD5, BD3.5 and BD2.5 into their accounts, categorizing beneficiaries according to their age groups.
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