Agriculture Ministry assures to buy unsold animals in Eid

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Some 770,000 cattle and 2.2 million sheep were sacrificed in Turkey last year, but the numbers may double this year, Agriculture Minister Eker says.

Turkey’s General Directorate of Meat and Dairy Institute has announced that it will buy animals for sacrifice that are not sold during Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, which officially starts today and runs through Oct. 18.

Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker said the Meat and Dairy Institute would buy unsold and alive animals from breeders in big cities after the feast.

The ministry has taken measures to protect breeders selling their animals this year, Eker said at a press meeting in the eastern province of Erzincan on Oct. 13. 

New measure

“What will the breeders, who brought their animals to sacrifice in big cities such as Istanbul and Ankara but can’t sell them, do? We sometimes used to take this measure: We helped to have the animals sacrificed by the Meat and Fish Combine. This year, we launched a new way for the first time: The unsold animals for sacrifice will be bought by the Meat and Dairy Institute while they are still alive, after Eid al-Adha,” he said, while adding that slaughterhouses and combines had a limited capacity.

The Meat and Dairy Institute said in a statement that their goal was to prevent breeders from selling their unsold animals for under market value after Eid al-Adha. Unsold animals will be bought by the institute between Oct. 18 and Nov. 2, after examining their physical condition and checking for diseases.

Meat and Dairy Institute General Manager İsmail Kemaloğlu said their combines in nine cities had finished all preparations and they would start buying alive, bovine animals from Oct. 18. The breeders, whose animals remained unsold, can apply to the institute, he added. 

The price per animal will be declared on Oct. 17, the statement said. 

Some 770,000 cattle and 2.2 million sheep were sacrificed in Turkey last year, but the numbers are expected to double this year, Eker said.