DUBAI Haji Wazir, 60, may be in his 20th year selling goats at the Al Ghusais Cattle Market in Dubai, but there is no time like Eid Al Adha for his business.
As a glut of goats from India and Somalia is herded into the complex to meet next week’s Eid rush, Wazir is banking on the festive sales for a reversal of fortune.
He tells XPRESS that handlers like him have suffered significant losses in the last couple of years.
“In 2008, we made almost 100 per cent profits and earned over Dh100,000 in three days. There has never been a year like that in my two decades here. But perhaps this will be a bumper year again,” he says, patting a dainty Indian goat with a bling of chestnut brown around its ears and horns. As of Monday the goat was priced at Dh500.
Over the next few days, Wazir says, this kind of money will not even fetch a baby goat in the marketplace.
Here today, gone tomorrow
“These goats will all be sold over the next few days before our actual Eid stocks arrive – much bigger, taller and heavier,” says Mohammad Nawaz, 22, and a relative newcomer to the cattle market, pointing to a goat of Iranian origin weighing about 25kg.
“Buy it today, we will give it to you for Dh1,000 but come back in a day or two, you will have to pay us almost double,” he says. Goats from his native Pakistan continue to be absent for another year after the country banned exports of livestock, he adds.
Saadat Hussain, 32, also from Pakistan, says, “In the past we sold close to 1,000 goats over Eid. But last year we couldn’t even manage 400. In fact, we were left with a sizeable stock even after Eid, something we could never imagine earlier. But despite our past losses, we can’t help but feel excited now that Eid is here.”
Boom time
At the Dubai Abattoir on Haleb Street right next door, the mood is equally upbeat.
“It’s that period of the year when we work double shifts, but then the reward is sweeter – not just spiritually but also financially as we get a month’s salary in bonus for the extra hours we put in. We work till 2am on these three days,” said Abdul Sattar, 43, from Malappuram in Kerala, India who has been working at the butchery since 1985.
It’s the same story with Ali Murad, 33, from Karachi, Pakistan, who has been working at the abattoir for over a decade. From 300-400 goats a day, they handle almost 15,000 goats per day during Eid, but they aren’t complaining.
Abattoir locations in Dubai
• Al Qusais
• Shindagha, next to Carrefour
• Hatta, near the Heritage Village
• Mobile abattoir in Al Quoz First, near Al Quoz Park
Slaughtering Prices
• Small animal (goat or sheep) Dh15.
• Cows range from Dh60.
• Camels range from Dh60.
• Price includes skinning animal and cutting it to four parts.
• Chopping is not offered during Eid Al Adha.
