The Iranian regime’s media outlets have reported an increase in the price of livestock in recent days. They announced that the price of each kilogram of sheep in the Tehran market ranges between 2.450 to 2.60 million rials (approximately $4.8 to 5), and the price of live calves has exceeded 2.2 million rials.
The minimum monthly wage of workers reaches 80 million rials (approximately $157)
On January 6, the price of each kilogram of lamb leg has reached 6.6 million rials (approximately $13), sheep’s shoulder is priced at 7.5 million rials (approximately $14.7), lamb fat at 3.46 million rials (approximately $6.8), and lamb stew meat at 9 million rials (approximately $17.6).
The gradual increase in meat prices in recent weeks is happening while on October 27, 2023, the regime’s Fars News Agency quoted Alireza Peymanpak, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, as saying that the price of lamb meat has taken a downward trend due to timely supply of domestic meat and imported red meat.
This claim has been made despite statistics published by the Statistical Center, which indicate a recent decrease in production due to various problems, including animal feed supply.
Based on this, a comparison of the performance of the country’s official slaughterhouses in November 2023 with the same month in 2022 indicates a 30% reduction in the amount of red meat supply in the country’s official slaughterhouses.
The government’s inability to regulate the market has ultimately led to a decrease in demand for this protein. Last week, Jalal Mahmoudzadeh, a member of the Agricultural Commission of the regime’s Majlis (Parliament), said that due to the rising prices and the decrease in people’s purchasing power, “red meat has been removed from 35% of households’ tables.”
The domino effect of increasing bread prices continues while Masoud Nili, an economist linked to the regime, says that the government provides 1,400 trillion rials (approximately $2.754 billion) in annual bread subsidies, but it is unclear how this subsidy is related to price increases and where and how the cost is incurred.
Masoud Nili, the former dean of the faculty of economics at Sharif University, said that “the government in our country is constantly distributing rent,” which in the past was from oil money, and now the government is doing it by creating debt.
According to Nili, the numbers for these rents have also become very large, and this “1,400 trillion rial bread subsidy” is one of these rents.
The distribution of the 1,400-trillion-rial rent under the title of bread subsidy has the least impact on people’s food basket, to the extent that the government has agreed to increase bread prices in various parts of the country.
In the latest case, on January 3rd, Sajjad Mohammadi, a member of the board of directors of the Union of Bakers in Bushehr province (Southern Iran), announced an increase in bread prices in Bushehr, saying, “The adjustment of bread prices in Bushehr is part of the wage gap of bakery workers from 2021 to 2023.”
Sajjad Mohammadi’s emphasis on covering part of the “wage gap” indicates that we should also expect price changes in this sector in the future.
On December 29, 2023, simultaneous with the continuing increase in the prices of many goods in Iran, Fars News Agency reported a 30% increase in the price of bread in Khuzestan.
The review of the changes that have occurred in the bread sector shows that the price of bread has increased regionally by 30% to 60% in different cities, an action that regime’s officials have referred to as “harmonizing bread prices.”
Bread, along with items like eggs, is one of the commonly consumed items among low-income groups in Iran.
