Rising food prices are upping the cost of sheep for slaughter during the Eid season in Jordan. From the Jordan Times:
Concluding the pilgrimage and commemorating Abraham's willingness to obey God by sacrificing his son, the purchase and slaughtering of sheep and other livestock is a vital aspect to the holiday feast, the most important in the Muslim calendar.I wrote about this over the summer. I've provided a link to that post for your convenience.
But in light of rising fodder prices in addition to increased prices of other basic commodities, traders said citizens have been more hesitant to make purchases.
With the youngest and lightest Jordanian-raised lamb, around 25kg, being sold for JD90, nearly the price of a full 60kg sheep a year ago, traders and customers alike expect to have a lighter than normal holiday.
With fuel prices on the way down, why are basic commodity prices still on the way up? Will investigate and report back soon.
4 comments:
Two words. Cycle Time. The livestock that has been fed the higher cost grains (taken all season to grow) at higher cost to produce, require that the costs of said livestock reflect the cost put into them.
This is why livestock costs here in the U.S. are still high. For instance, a full ham right now costs about 30% more than it did last year at this time. Beef, lamb, fish are the same way. Chicken doesn't seem to have increased as much though. Hmm. Of course chicken demand and supply have increased dramatically in recent years.
I'd have to imagine simple supply and demand is a factor as well. Just like how turkey prices are highest at Thanksgiving, and Fireworks in July (pre 4th). At time of mass sacrifice, the costs are going to be high...especially if "production" is down because of the reasoning you gave in your summer post.
DCLark
Fact. Which also fits in with the fuel crisis at the pump, where suppliers threatened to shut down because they were selling gas at a price cheaper than they bought it.
But if they bought the fuel at X price, then why were they selling it at < X price? That doesn't fit the supply and demand model at all. Unless there is no demand, and your blog from last week shows that that's not the case. Some other factor is involved there wether it be competitive issues or government. I hope for their sake it's only competition (in which case you weather things until you drain your storage tanks and buy at the new, lower fuel price) rather than govt. involvement. Then you're screwed every time.
L'aissez faire always seems to be the best means as it's realistic and reflective of an industry in relation to the market (don't get me started on bailouts).
Essentially what you have is a near perfectly competitive market (no product differentiation) such that a firm can gain 100 percent of the market share by lowering its price. So if station A has bought a tank at a lower price than station B, it can sell that gas for less and get all of B's customers, assuming that B holds its price steady. Station B has to lower its costs or risk zero revenues. This starts off a price war as gas continues to plummet, as firms in PC assume the market price rater than set it. Meanwhile, your average Jordanian isn't thinking "hmm, I'll wait to buy gas tomorrow when it'll be cheaper,' they're thinking, 'I need gas today before supplies run out.'
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