Mahmoud Mohamed-Tripoli

In a market in Benghazi, eastern Libya, Ahmed Amer complains of encouraging a sheep trader for requiring the sale of sukuk and bank cards at prices that exceed cash.

Low-income people in Benghazi are waiting until late on the night of Eid, for the price of sacrificial animals to fall, as some traders are forced to cut prices for the rest of their livestock.

"We bought three sheep today at 1,200 Libyan dinars per sheep (about $ 266 at the parallel market price) and we were forced to pay sukuk because of the lack of cash at Benghazi banks," Amer told Al Jazeera Net.

Amer described the prices of domestic sheep as high compared to previous years, where the price of domestic sheep to 2000 dinars (about 444 dollars), while the price of imported sheep about 800 dinars (about 170 dollars).

Amer called on the authorities to set a single price for Eid sacrifices to fight the greed of traders who set prices according to their wishes.

Libyans prefer local sheep over importer (Al Jazeera)

The Eid al-Adha sights in Benghazi began with the deployment of street vendors, who parked barbecue equipment and slaughter on the road to mark the approach of Eid.

These rituals have become rare because of the successive crises in Benghazi and the preoccupation of people with the war, coupled with the ritual situation before the war in the commercial markets and the availability of liquidity and security stability.

Lack of liquidity
According to Kamal Jatlawi, a member of the Supreme State Council, dealing with sukuk and bank cards is due to the lack of liquidity in commercial banks in eastern Libya and the lack of trust between traders and the government.

Al-Jatlawi said in his talk to the island Net that the fee imposed on the dollar in commercial banks contributed significantly to reduce the big difference between the sale of cash and selling Sukuk.

Jatlaoui stressed that one of the best achievements of the Presidential Council of the Accord government is to impose fees on the sale of foreign currency to achieve a relative balance and a decline in prices.

Sacrificial prices have risen dramatically in Libya because of the war (Al Jazeera)

He added that the government has opened funds for the supply of sacrificial animals without exemption from fees in order to benefit the state treasury and achieve competition and lower prices in the market and reduce the smuggling of sacrificial animals abroad.

He considered that the monitoring by the Government of Wefaq this year was to ensure the authenticity of imported sacrifices and open credits to all traders without exception at the same collection fee charged by the Government of Wefaq and the Central Bank of Libya.

Reluctance to buy
Citizens refrained from buying Eid clothes for their families, coupled with the purchase of the sacrifice amid a lack of financial liquidity and the deteriorating economic and security situation caused by the war on the border of Tripoli.

"My salary, which is about 400 dinars (about $ 90), has not come down for three months and is not enough to buy the National Day lamb because of its high price this year," said Issa Ali, whom Al Jazeera Net met in the market.

Issa, a disabled person walking on crutches, said his seven children were deprived this year of buying Eid clothes because of the huge expenses that have become a burden for Libyan families on each holiday.

"We will not be happy at this holiday because of the clashes in Tripoli, in which some of my relatives, the best of Misrata, lost their lives because of the war on the capital," he said.

"We will win this war and on Eid we will rejoice with our children and relatives despite the pain," he concluded.

High costs
Marwan Mohamed, a Libyan livestock trader, attributed the rise in sacrificial prices this year to higher feed prices, high wages for African herders and the difficulty of transporting livestock shipments from one area to another for sale in more densely populated areas, unlike the small towns where sheep are raised.

The trader of the island Net that the process of transport, for example, from Benghazi to Tripoli has become difficult and expensive under the conditions of war and the impact of Tripoli clashes on transport routes between eastern and western Libya.

Traders complain about high costs of raising sheep and importing them (Al Jazeera)

He explained that raising sheep in large batches requires the provision of larger quantities of feed per day for more than six months, pointing out that the local sheep are raised as a small and his expenses increase every year due to the lack of interest in the authorities of livestock.

Balance in the market
In turn, the Director General of the National Center for Animal Health in Tripoli Zakaria al-Khatali that the ports of Libya has received since the beginning of last month to date about 350 thousand head of imported sheep.

He added that "these imported sheep achieve a kind of balance in the local market in Libya, especially for low-income citizens after the marked rise in the price of local national sheep."

Libyans prefer the local sheep because of its advantages, including the quality of pastures that eat them, which makes it tastier and tastier than the imported sheep, which eats industrial feed.

From Spain
Al-Khatali told Al-Jazeera Net that 90% of sheep were imported by Libya from Spain, which has now become the first source of sheep in Libya, in addition to receiving shipments of sheep from Romania.

Libyan authorities confirmed that all imported sheep are disease free (Al Jazeera)

He considered that the most effective ports in the supply in order are the ports of Misrata, Tripoli, Al-Khums, Benghazi and Tobruk under the guarantee of countries free from infectious diseases.

The spokesman assured the Libyan citizens that all imported livestock are free from diseases and are subject to an initial and temporary integrated medical program under the supervision of the Libyan Customs Authority.

Street vendors are spread out on the sidewalk and in the streets and alleys carrying cooking equipment, barbecue, charcoal and firewood.