Haj pilgrims have been urged to make use of the Kingdom’s sacrificial meat utilization program, which is aimed at helping the faithful perform their sacrifices in an orderly and hygienic manner in order to prevent environmental pollution at the holy sites of Mina and Makkah.
Ahmed Mohamed Ali, president of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), which supervises the prestigious "Adahi" program, has said that the Saudi government has spent more than SR1 billion to build infrastructure facilities for the project, which include advanced slaughter houses and huge cold storage.
“We deploy about 40,000 workers including veterinarians, administrators and butchers, to carry out the project every year,” Ali told a press conference at the IDB headquarters.
The meat for this year’s sacrificial animals will be distributed among the poor in 28 countries, as well as in different parts of Saudi Arabia.
Last year, the project utilized meat of 961,829 sheep. “We have made arrangements to utilize the meat of one million sheep and 10,000 cows and camels during this Haj season,” Ali said. This year, IDB has fixed the price of a single sacrificial sheep at SR490 ($131 or 99 euros). “Despite the rise in prices of livestock worldwide, we have managed to import an adequate number of sheep at a reasonable rate,” the president said.
He requested foreign Haj missions to encourage their pilgrims to purchase Adahi coupons for sacrifice, including hady, fidya, odhiya, sadaqa and aqeqa, through Al-Rajhi Bank, Saudi Post, Al-Amoudi Exchange and Haji & Mutamir Gift Association.