High Food Prices Shrink Eid al-Adha Feasts for Some Middle Eastern Families

Eid al-Adha, which begins on Friday evening, is one of the most important festivals of Islam. According to Islamic faith, it honors God’s decision to provide Prophet Abraham with a lamb to be sacrificed in place of his son. Muslims around the world usually slaughter animals in celebration, sit down for a family feast and distribute the remaining meat to the poor.

After the covid-19 pandemic cut down on their celebrations Over the past two years, many in the Arab world have been waiting for large gatherings of family and friends to mark the festival. Instead, some are inviting fewer guests, while others are putting cheaper food options on the table.

Um Othman, a 57-year-old cook from Baghdad, used to take several orders for maslawi kubba, a traditional slow-boiled dish of lamb heads, trotters and stomachs, and a meat pie with lamb and pine nuts. But this year only two customers asked him.

“It makes me sad,” she said. “It is not all about money, but about habit and tradition. I wish I had enough money to cook food to please people. ,

Food prices rise on high oil prices and supply disruptions Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Some governments, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are using their oil money to promote social-spending programs to help poor people. Others are pushing to provide such assistance and have recently considered withdrawing subsidies.

As prices rise, some people have started buying a sacrificial animal with relatives and friends to continue the tradition this year. Ahmed Ibrahim in Egypt says that after buying his sheep every year for more than a decade, the 37-year-old shared the cost with his brother this year. Now they worry that with prices still high, they won’t be able to afford a single animal next year.

In Egypt, a depreciation in the Egyptian pound further raised the real prices of feed and transport, which were rising due to higher oil prices.

In some parts of the region, the price of a sheep has risen by more than 50%. For example, in a typical market in Egypt, an animal costing $100 to $200, depending on size, is now $150 to $300.

In Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah, prices for a premium local sheep variety called Harry’s rose from around 1,400 riyals to 1,700 riyals (about $452) to 2,200 riyals last year, according to local lamb breeder Abu Walid.

Most of Mr. Walid’s sales up to this festival have been of a standard variety, called a sock, as customers hold back from buying Harry’s. The former is usually imported from Sudan and has seen a 6% to 8% increase in prices.

The rise in livestock prices has mostly affected low- and middle-income households, who are also reeling from a boom in other commodities, partly driven by the Ukraine crisis.

“We didn’t get a lamb for our house this year,” said Susan Ismail, a 65-year-old preschool teacher in Jeddah. She said that one animal would cost her more than $530. “The prices were too high!”

Meat-industry workers like Farhat Arfoui are feeling the effects of the wave. Mr. Arfoui owns a meat stall in a market in Tunisia’s capital city of Tunis, and says that his business is struggling because of the drop in sales and his own costs of transporting the products. This is when the business was mostly closed during the pandemic.

handful Protests have erupted in Tunisia In the past year, due to long-standing economic burdens such as rising inflation and unemployment.

Mr. Arfaoi’s family of four buys meat once a week instead of two or three times before. His daughter is asking why he eats more chicken than beef. “I just keep making promises that maybe next week we can eat fish or other things,” he said.

At the Al-Manshi livestock market in Giza, Egypt, livestock trader Hassan Rabouh says he finds himself on the defensive when customers get nervous about spending more.

“Many people think it’s us who are raising the prices,” he said. He tries to explain that his 30% to 40% growth comes mostly from wholesale distributors and he is trying to swallow some of the cost.

In addition to not being able to put meat on the table for their families, many Muslims are grappling with the guilt that they are unable to give to the poor on this holiday at all.

“I hope God will forgive me,” said Ahmed Hussein, 45, of Baghdad. He was put out of construction work last year due to the pandemic, but even before that buying meat was a strain. An animal costing about $250 was worth more than a quarter of his monthly salary.

—Ghasan Adnan in Baghdad and Donna Abdulaziz in Jeddah contributed to this article.

write to Summer said summers.said@wsj.com and Chao Deng at chao.deng@wsj.com