Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH —As many as 12,620,270 animals were slaughtered in the official slaughterhouses in the Kingdom in 2018, the Arabic language daily Al-Watan reported on Saturday quoting a report by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs.

The report said local breed accounted for a total of 7,173,776 sheep, cattle, goats and camels, representing about 59.5 percent of the total while 4,888,494 animals were imported.

The report said the number of slaughtered animals this year way higher than their number last year when 7,219,605 animals were slaughtered.

It said the number of local and imported sheep was 7,893,622, which was an increase of about 65 percent over their number the previous year.

The report said some 3,413,844 goats were slaughtered in 2018 compared to 2,085,546 in 2017. It said the number of the local and imported camels slaughtered this year was 446,317, which was an increase of 55 percent against the previous year when their number was 286,561.

According to the report, as many as 308,487 cattle were slaughtered this year compared to 209,565 last year, representing a 47 percent increase.

The report said 2,777,653 animals were slaughtered in Riyadh, 3,784,828 in Makkah, 453,104 in Madinah, 1,387,596 in the Eastern Province and 1,360,170 in Asir.