Iran’s state-run news agency ILNA acknowledged on Monday, March 4, the alarming surge in inflation and consumption statistics. According to February’s inflation data, the cost of the essential basket of goods in the country’s major cities has surpassed 30 million tomans.
ILNA reports that the exclusion of high-quality protein products such as red meat began for the working class in the mid-2010s. This trend escalated in 2018 with a sudden spike in gasoline prices and subsequent economic shocks, entering a new phase in 2021 and 2022.
This can be characterized as the complete elimination of high-quality protein from the diets of hardworking individuals. ILNA further notes that the upward trajectory of food inflation indices remains robust. Recent data from the Iranian Statistics Center reveals that 38% of selected food items experienced higher inflation rates than the overall annual inflation in February. Notably, all protein types continue to experience record annual inflation.
In this dire situation, ILNA emphasizes the harsh reality that, with the absence of red and white meat from lower-income households’ tables, ‘eggs’ have emerged as the sole protein source. According to a municipal worker in Iranshahr, eggs frequently appear on the food lists of workers and the impoverished classes several times a week.
The worker elaborated, “Our survival hinges solely on eggs—just bread and eggs. Beans have become prohibitively expensive in recent years, and while eggs are also costly, there’s no alternative for survival.”
These stark circumstances leave workers with no choice but to rely on bread, cheese, and eggs as their primary protein sources in their diets, underscoring the plight of lower-income segments of society.
