This Monday, March 21, a 48% increase was announced on the price of meat, a measure that goes very badly in Turkey, just a few days before the start of the month of Ramadan.
This new increase comes on top of the rains of almost daily price increases, hitting the purchasing power of Turkish households hard, as the country is experiencing a severe economic crisis and spectacular inflation (+48.7% annual in January 2022). ). In recent months, the Turks have had to reduce the quantities of their shopping basket, even giving up basic food products.
The 48% increase in meat prices as announced by the Turkish Meat and Dairy Corporation (ESK), brings the price per kilo of minced meat (kıyma) from 56 TL to 83 TL, that of fillet steak (bonfile) from 154 TL to 228 TL. Poultry prices, for their part, have risen by 14% on average.
Find the (indicative) list of ESK prices by clicking HERE.
Turkey: lowest meat consumption in Europe
You might think that the Turks are big consumers of meat but in reality they are in last position on the European scale, meat being considered a luxury product in Turkey. According to Eurostat, 37.3% of Turks could not afford to eat meat (compared to an average of 8.6% in the European Union).
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the quantity of meat consumed by the Turks in 2018 would be around 39 kilos per person (compared to 79 kilos in France), but if the ‘we only count red meat, it’s much less. Indeed, according to data from the Turkish Association of Manufacturers and Producers of Red Meat (ETBİR), in 2019, a family of four in Turkey consumed a total of 48 kilos of red meat per year, while this consumption would have decreased. to 28 kilos in 2020. Over the same period, household consumption of pasta would have increased by 25%.
Moreover, according to the FAO, fish consumption also remains very low in Turkey, at around 5 kg/person per year.
According to a survey by the Türk-İş union in February 2022, the monthly food expenditure required for a healthy and balanced diet for a family of four stands at 4,552.56 TL, while the minimum wage (asgari ücret) is 4,253 TL since early January.
If in recent days, the debate for an increase in the minimum wage in July 2022 was launched in the National Assembly, this Tuesday, March 22, Vedat Bilgin, the Turkish Minister of Labor and Social Security indicated that he was out of the question as a 50% increase had already been granted in January 2022.