Cattle Prices Shoot Up in Dar Es Salaam

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

Abduel Elinaza

31 May 2011

PRICES of cattle at Pugu market in Dar es Salaam have gone up by almost three per cent in the last one week but meat prices remained stable, due to stiff competition.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade weekly cattle summary shows that the market deliverability declined by eight per cent to 436 from 474 heads of cattle.

The summary, which captures the week that ended last Friday, shows mature male cattle price for grade two and three rose by 2.5 and 2.9 per cent to reach 641,000/- and 455,000/- respectively.

It also indicates, mature female cows, grade two price increased by 4.5 per cent to 480,500/-, but grade three decreased by 2.5 per cent to 390,000/-.

However, the cattle market continues to experience shrinkage of supply as at the beginning of this month, the market received 650 heads of cattle compared to 436 of the last week of last month.

A butcher at Tabata, Bima, in Ilala, Dar es Salaam said the wholesale prices have not changed much despite the low number of cattle received.

“This little change could not spark the up spiral price movement,” the butcher said, “We couldn’t risk increasing the prices, we have lowered them, instead,” he said, noting that stiff competition also contributed to the stabilised prices.

The butcher’s shop sold a kilogramme of mixed meat at 4,000/-, which is down from 5,000/- at the beginning of this month. A cattle broker at Pugu Market, Mr William Mwalyema said normal mid year animal prices are shooting up as farmers saw no reason to sale their animals because it is harvesting season.

“We are experiencing supply shortage, while the quality of animals is not good,” Mr Mwalyema said. He said the prices of goats and sheep are on higher side and estimated the situation to last up to end of harvesting season in August.

But the weekly summary shows that the price of goat and sheep on average have gone down by between two and five per cent, and two and nine per cent respectively. The average prices for female goat grade two dropped by 2.9 per cent to 51,000/-while grade three dipped by 2.5 per cent to 39,000/- per animal.

For sheep prices went down to three per cent for grade two to 47,500/- and there were no change in price for grade three that stagnated at 33,500/-. On male goat grade two prices increased by 8.0 per cent to 62,500/- but on grade three dropped to 41,500/- or five per cent.

On the sheep market grade two prices slide-down by 2.4 per cent to 49,800/- and grade three plummeted by 9.5 per cent to 38,000/- per animal. The goat and sheep market, unlike the cattle market that experienced supply drop of 8.0 per cent, deliverability was up by 5.3 per cent in both auctions-342 and 237 respectively.

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