Boycott might not cure Egypt's cow price madness

After red meat prices reached new heights of late, two bankers in the Upper Egypt city of Nagaa Hamadi launched a campaign calling for a boycott of all butchers, joining similar calls across the country in protest against continuous hikes of animal protein prices.

Average domestic red meat prices in Egypt increased by 298.2 percent in the last 13 years, from LE17 per kilo in 2000 to LE67.7 in 2013, according to Egypt's state statistics body CAPMAS. In 2015, the price per kilo increased to LE85 ($11) on average.

Balaha Lahma, or We Can Do Without Meat, is the name of the campaign, and of all other similar campaigns in many Egyptian cities, mostly in Upper Egypt where poverty is rampant.

Such campaigns are not necessarily related to one another in terms of coordination or approaches. A namesake hashtag went viral on social media for the past few weeks to promote the meat boycott, and express public dissatisfaction over meat prices.

The identity of the founder of the first campaign to boycott red meat in Egypt is not confirmed, with conflicting reports from different sources on who initiated it.