A Snapshot of Egypt’s Livestock and Meat Market

Updated 6/7/2025 9:00:00 AM

Happy Eid El Adha to all! As one of the major celebrations for Muslim communities worldwide, Eid El-Adha comes with its own traditions and spirit. Muslims observe this occasion by sacrificing livestock, including cattle, sheep, goats, buffaloes, and camels, with the meat distributed among relatives, neighbors, and those in need.

In this Factsheet, we provide an overview of Egypt’s livestock sector and fresh meat statistics. Grab a plate of Fattah and enjoy reading!

In 2023, Egypt’s livestock, including cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, and camels, declined by 8.4% year-on-year (YoY) to 7.6 million heads from 8.3 million heads in 2022.
The livestock structure included 2.83 million cattle, 1.95 million sheep, 1.44 million buffalo, 1.14 million goats, and 241,000 camels.
In 2023, Sharkia, Beheira, and Minya emerged as Egypt’s leading governorates in terms of livestock population. Sharkia held the top position with 1.26 million heads, followed by Beheira with 1.1 million, and Minya with 770,000.
In 2023, the total number of slaughtered livestock in Egypt declined to 4.2 million heads, 8.5% down from 4.6 million in 2022. Of the total, cattle accounted for 31.3%, buffalo 14.7%, sheep and goats collectively made up 51.2%, while camels represented 2.8%. Notably, Egypt has 464 public slaughterhouses.
A notable decline was recorded in Egypt’s fresh meat production, which totaled 650,000 tons in 2023, a 19.0% drop from 803,000 tons in 2022. Beef accounted for 52.5% of the total output, followed by buffalo meat with a share of 31.4%, sheep and goats with 11.5%, and camel meat with 4.6%.
The average per capita of red meat consumption in Egypt was 7.9 kilograms in 2023. The total domestic consumption reached 842,000 tons, indicating a self-sufficiency rate of 69.4%. Hence, Egypt bridges this consumption gap through importing livestock and frozen meat.
Egypt imported $309.4 million worth of livestock in 2023, positioning it among the top Muslim countries importing livestock. Key supplying markets included Colombia, Brazil and Sudan. Meat imports, on the other hand, totaled $1.2 billion, secured mainly from India, Brazil, and the US.

By: Amina Hussein