Anyone who has been to Turkey knows that there's no shortage of meat dishes on offer in the country. Which might help explain why the government may be getting ready to intervene in what appears to be a growing meat crisis. While the price of red meat has been dropping in other countries in the region, in Turkey it's on the rise. That's bad new for any government. From a report in Today's Zaman:
A growing shortage of red meat is the reported cause of the extraordinary price increases in the market. Some parties have suggested that the government lift a ban on red meat imports, instituted eight years ago as a result of the mad cow disease scare, while others say the best solution to address the current shortage would be an increase in stockbreeding. Turkey currently does not allow imported meat into the country out of safety and health concerns.
Some papers reported on Saturday that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had ordered the “handling of the red meat issue,” which could mean that red meat dealers will face state intervention in the market. Soon after the news broke, the price of red meat saw a slight decline. Amid discussions over a prolonged “price crisis” in the domestic red meat market, Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker signaled on Saturday that the government could finally intervene to re-establish balance in the markets.
Eker said his ministry has discovered that “some speculators played with the prices” and would intervene to re-establish balance in the market. He said the Ministry of Agriculture had granted red meat dealers one week to reduce the prices to “favorable levels,” adding: “We began a comprehensive market survey three days ago; this will be completed within a week. We will define what steps will be taken based on the results of the survey.”
You can read the full article here.
The mysterious meat shortage may also explain why Istanbul Eats has been hearing strange rumors about where some of the meat in town may be coming from these days.
Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.