The livestock seller from Gaza, Muhammad Al-Qur´an, is complaining about a great recession hanging over his sales, despite the limited days remaining until the occasion of Eid Al-Adha, which is most appropriate for Muslims.
Qur´an, a resident of the central Gaza Strip, says he is moving for the fourth consecutive day between markets in the hope of selling sheep, but he has only been able to sell three heads.
Al-Qur´an, a father of ten, complains of incurring heavy losses for not being able to sell his sheep, noting that in normal days he sells more than 20 head of cattle on the occasion of Eid Al Fitr.
And the crisis of the new Corona Virus disease cast a negative shadow on the preparations of the people of Gaza to receive Eid al-Adha as a result of the severe financial crisis they are suffering due to the deteriorating economic conditions.
Merchants and ranchers complain of stagnating sales in the Gaza markets, which may cause them heavy losses due to the reluctance of customers to purchase sacrificial animals due to their difficult economic conditions.
Al-Qur´an explains that he had to offer his livestock for sale in installments, but sales levels remained limited "because economic conditions restrict the levels of demand for sacrifice for this year."
The prices of kilograms of sheep and sheep range between five to six dollars, while beef prices range between $ 3.8 to $ 4.8, depending on the types of calves imported.
Because of the low turnout, dealers were forced to cut about two percent of the original livestock prices.
Dozens of "local" livestock gathered in the "Halal" market, the market dedicated to selling sheep, in the city of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, to sell their livestock.
But despite the merchants waiting for long hours in the sun during the summer, they could only sell a few "sheep heads", out of dozens they own.
50-year-old Mazen Shuheiber, the owner of a local farm selling livestock south of Gaza City, complains of calves stacking on his farm and selling only 15 out of 250 others.
"This season is very bad," Shuheiber told Xinhua. "Because of the difficult situation, we had to cut prices, yet we were unable to achieve the minimum profits required."
"The majority of their conditions are difficult and until we sell, we accept relying on the installment payment mechanism, at least to avoid big losses," he added, while supervising the feeding of calves.
The phenomenon of selling by installments when buying sacrificial animals has spread in recent years, in which Gaza´s conditions have worsened due to the prolongation of a tight Israeli blockade since mid-2007, following the control of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
Nasr says the source in the sixties of his age that he bought one sheep, contrary to what he used to in the past years to buy two and three on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, because of his poor financial conditions.
"The Corona crisis, in addition to the economic blockade, has negatively affected us as customers," Nasr told Xinhua. "There are large numbers who refrained from buying sacrifices this year."
The sacrifices are sacrificed after hearing the takbeers from the mosques in the early morning hours of the first day of Eid, to distribute meat to the family and neighbors, and to maintain a quantity, usually a third, for food and personal consumption.
And the Ministry of Agriculture, which is run by Hamas in Gaza, announced that the Strip’s farms currently have 12,000 calves and about 25 to 30,000 head of sheep, in order to satisfy the Strip’s need.
The Corona crisis, in addition to the Israeli blockade, has compounded the deterioration of the economic and living conditions in Gaza, according to data provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, which showed on International Labor Day in early May, that the unemployment rate in the sector reached about 56 percent.
Moreover, about 83 per cent of the population of the Strip lives below the poverty line, while the average daily income per person is $ 2, according to the People´s Committee to Face the Siege on Gaza, which is the worst in the world.
Officials in the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry say that "destitution and poverty are widespread among the population, which makes the recession hit the Gaza Strip markets, especially with the coming of seasons and occasions in which expenses multiply.
