Rihaab Tajmohamed 11R

Chosen Article: High demand pushes sheep prices up.

Economic Terms (define):
Demand:is the quantity of a good or service that consumers are willing and able to purchase at a
given price in a given time period.
Supply: the quantity of a good or service that producers are willing and able to sell over a price
range in a given time period, ceteris paribus.
Subsidizing: where the government intervene by reducing the burden of high prices of goods and
(or services) in a group or community, by making the prices more affordable by the group/
community. Governments either pay cash or tax reduction.
Abundance: when the goods/ services are plenty or large quantity.
Determinants of Demand (Exp.) (T/F): When factors other than the price changes affecting the
demand curve to shift. Determinants of demand include: Dx=F{Px, Pc, Ps, Yd, T/F, Exp, N.E.F}. In
this article, the determinants more focused on are Exp, also known as the expectancy, and T/F
known as tastes and fashion. Expectancy is where the community/ group are expect the prices to
either go up or down during familiar circumstances or period of time. Example; coats will be more
in demand and prices will increase during the period of winter, therefore the community expect
such incidences. Taste and fashion is where forms media (e.g. celebrity presenting protein bars)
influence the community to either buy more or less of a good and or service.
Article Anaylsis.
The purpose of this article is to show how the increase of demand of goats and sheep has
resulted to pushing higher price than usual, in countries such as Syria, Jordan and Sudan. The
proposed argument in this article is the increase of the prices of goats and sheep being at least 30
to 40 percent higher this year during festival of sacrifice (such as Eid Al Adha) than last year in
2013. Logically, it is expected during the period of festivals of sacrifice the prices of goats and
sheep to higher than normal. This is because there is more demand of this good (goats and sheep)
therefore the producers to supply more goods, in this case farmers breed more goats and sheep as it
is more demanded in this period of time. Therefore, in order of the supply and demand curve to
meet equilibrium (shown in Fig i.), the prices of goats and sheep has to increase in order for the
producers to be able to produce more goats and sheep in the market, as they get excess to
income. (As shown Fig ii.) in Which then produces an excess of supply (or surplus), this is where
the producers have produced more of this good than demanded, therefore in a long run will result to
decrease the price in order to shift the supply curve down (left).

Fig i) Equilibrium of Goat and

SheepMarket.

Fig ii) Equilibrium of Goat and

SheepMarket.

Rihaab Tajmohamed 11R

Affected countries such as such as Syria and Jordan government has partaken responsibility
of tackling this crisis by subsidising. As the price of sheep and goats increases the demand is less,
therefore in order for the demand curve and the supply curve to meet- the government has to
intervene, in this case by 'subsidising' where the government pays the producers additional payment
to lower the price of sheep and goats, where it is goats and/or sheep are affordable for people in
Qatar. However, 'subsiding' does not work affect the supply curve or the suppliers, as they still
achieve financial gain.
During such period of time where demand has increased on one market of goats and sheep,
has affected other protein-related markets to go down. For example, as mentioned in the article that
fish consumption during the period of Muslim festivals 'Eid al Haji', the demand for fish has been
low due to the availability of meat in abundance. The reason to why fish market has gone down is
because there is more supply or quantity of meat such as goat and sheep, therefore the
production of fish has stopped for this period of time, as the demand of fish has gone down, the
producers would not make much income from fish production than they would from the production
of meat (mostly goats and sheep). As shown from (Fig iii.), as the demand of fish is low, the prices
will go down, as little of this good will be produced. However in a long-run it will be an alternative
more people who dont get meat but fish, to buy fish at a cheaper price, therefore there will be a
demand of this good and will result to increase the price of fish.

Fig iii) Equilibrium of Fish Market.

Fig iii) Equilibrium of Fish Market.

To conclude I believe in a long run the prices of goat and sheep will decrease, resulting the
demand to increase, because if the prices continue increasing even after the "festival of sacrifice"
the demand for both goods will decrease and resulting to a surplus of these goods, which will
automatically result to decrease the price of these goods in order to get rid of the excess of these
goods, which will shift the supply curve to the left. This way everyone is happy, as everyone gets
their share!