Food prices are soaring in Iran in the year dubbed by the Supreme Leader as “the year to control inflation.”

The price of mutton has passed 5,000,000 rials a kilogram (about $10) and some other items like edible oil and dairy products have jumped 30 percent in recent weeks.

According to officials, the monthly minimum wage of less than $150 only suffices for nine days of a family's livelihood.

Farmers and ranchers say if they do not increase the prices of meat and dairy products, they have toclose down their businesses soon.

However, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei claimed Sunday that to resolve the economic woes, the country needs to have nuclear energy, but he declined to say how nuclear energy can help controllingthe inflation. 

A few months into the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, when inflation was around 40 percent, the High Council of Labor increased the minimum wage by an unprecedented 57 percent in early 2022 after two consecutive years of very high inflation. At the time minimum wage almost equaled $220.

However, the rial lost half of its value in the past nine months and the minimum wage, without housing allowance, has dropped to around $120 a month.