CAIRO: Sitting next to his rickety stall stacked high with seasonal plastic lanterns, a toothy-grinned Am Ahmed waits for a customer at the start of Ramadan which in Egypt this year is looking bleak.
“It’s not like it used to be, there are many fewer customers. Before, people bought things without counting. Now, they are very careful, he sighs.
There are plenty of goods on this shopping street in Cairo’s crowded Sayyeda Zeinab district: dates, nuts, raisins and the renowned fanous (lanterns) are all here in great quantities. But the clients are lacking.
Egypt in July broke yet another inflation record, hitting 23 percent year-on-year with the price of certain staples up more than 70 percent.
“Prices have gone up 50 percent since last year, says Zeinab, whose stall nevertheless seems to have more business than most.
“Ramadan is supposed to be a joyful month, but this year everything is too expensive. People can’t take it any more.
Customers buy in smaller quantities “because, after all, they have to invite their relatives round, she says, referring to the traditional iftar meals with which the Muslim faithful break their fast at sunset with friends and family.
“It’s unbelievable. It can’t last. There’s too much pressure, says Hassan, a 30-year-old engineer with a family. “For me, Ramadan has become a burden. I try to be happy but my heart is not in it.
Dried dates, a particularly sought after delicacy traditionally consumed by Muslims because Prophet Mohamed broke his fast with a few dates and some milk, are especially expensive.
“Dates are very expensive because this year the harvest hasn’t been completed, says a trader with a hint of desperation in his voice.
Because Islam uses the lunar calendar, the season in which Ramadan falls changes slightly every year, affecting the length of people’s dawn-to-dusk fast, the temperatures they must endure and the price of seasonal fruit.
The cost of raisins has hit LE 21 a kilo, dates are between LE 5-8 a kilo, while a kilo of coconut powder costs LE 18.
The total cost is simply too much for many in a country where around 44 percent of the population lives at or below the poverty level of $2 a day.
Skyrocketing prices and persistently low wages have led to a wave of strikes and demonstrations this year, including riots in April in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla in which three people died, dozens were hurt and hundreds arrested.
However, Diaa Rashwan of Al-Ahram Center for Political Strategic Studies says the risk of social unrest diminishes sharply during Ramadan.
“Social troubles never arise during Ramadan. People hold themselves back and wait because that’s part of their deepest belief system, he says.
While no social unrest is expected during Ramadan, the atmosphere is morose for customers and shopkeepers alike, with the costs of the new school year coming on top of all the other expenses.
Am Ahmed is still waiting for a customer. “If I could just sell two lanterns for LE 1 each then I could buy a meal for my family, he says, wistfully. -AFP
