McDonald’s Big Mac is Now 50% More Expensive After Global Pricing Beef

The unimaginable just happened. We can no longer deem ourselves ‘economical’ beasts when we throw in the towel on Thursday evenings and call up our resident food chain Mcdonald’s. Earlier this week, McDonald’s announced - heartbreakingly so - that its product prices have surged by a whopping 40%, causing other fast food chains to follow in the giant’s lead. RIP chicken nuggies.

According to Abdel-Aziz El-Sayed, the Egyptian head of the Poultry Division at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, prices have gone up in order to accommodate production and transportation costs endured by restaurant chains such as Mcdonald’s. In turn, whilst chickens are valued at about EGP 33 per kilogram (taking the fact that prices vary day to day into account), the final price, post-production, would need to sell for EGP 55 per kilogram to account for the disparities.

The recent changes have meant that our beloved Mcdonald’s Share Box has gone up from EGP 123 to EGP 165, and the Grand Share Box now ranges from EGP 176 to EGP 235. On a similar note, and from a global perspective, Big Macs have changed Egypt’s position in the famed Economist’s 'Big Mac Index' - an indicator that measures the purchasing power parity between two currencies based on the price of the Big Mac - undervaluing our currency by 53.4%.

The crowd's favourite medium-size Big Mac combo meal went up from EGP 52 to EGP 78, while the large-size meal increased from EGP 59 to EGP 88. The rest of the menu saw comparable increases.