Saudi bans chicken export after price surge

Saudi Arabia has banned the export of chicken in a bid to control spiraling prices that have triggered a public campaign on social networks to boycott poultry food.

The world’s top oil exporter and largest Arab economy attributed the price increase in chicken to a surge in the price of imported fodder by up to 40 per cent over the past few weeks because of higher global prices.

Newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry issued a decision on Wednesday halting the export of chicken until the domestic market is “supplied enough and prices stabilize.”

The decision followed a campaign launched by Saudis on Twitter to boycott buying and eating chicken in the country of around 28 million.

Scores of Saudis joined the boycott while some of the vowed not to buy or eat chicken until Eid Al Adha, a Moslem feast which is scheduled to begin late this month and coincide with the annual Moslem pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

“I am with this boycott…let’s stop eating chicken until Eid Al Adha,” Abdullah Al Hammoudi said on his Twitter page.

“Let’s all join hands in this boycott, which is an effective tool to control prices amidst traders’ vigil and government’s slumber,” Mansour Al Mansour said.

Another Saudi, identifying herself as Ghada Saed, wrote funnily: “I am with the boycott but we should know why the prices have gone up so sharply…perhaps each chicken wants a cock for herself but each cock wants more chicken as they want to be like Saudi men having more than a wife…it seems the chicken were upset and breeding became low.”

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