(Un)Wanted: Saiga Meat

Осы мақаланың қазақша нұсқасын оқыңыз. Читайте этот материал на русском. Three years ago, despite public backlash, the government ordered to “cull” the population of saiga antelope, a wild species of mammal typical of Kazakhstan’s steppe, which was allegedly causing harm to agriculture.Since then, the slaughter of saiga antelope has continued, although the government issued an annual “quota” that limits the number of saiga that can be legally killed.The culling-to-market-to-plate pipeline that the government had imagined, however, hasn’t worked well.It turns out that the people are just not that excited to eat saiga meat, and still prefer beef and lamb despite higher prices.The authorities thought this would be a win-win scenario: both farmers and consumers should have benefited.But the reality was different.Because of the lack of demand for saiga meat, processing plants have excess stock, and the money that the government poured into the “culling” campaign is long gone with no hope of being recouped.The ministry of agriculture justified the lack of success with Kazakhstan’s own “commitments to restore populations of rare animal species.”