Necessary introduction:
This material does not present a criminal accusation against any party. Rather, it gathers published information, official decisions, and circulating market information, and raises legitimate questions about transparency and possible conflicts of interest in a sensitive sector that affects Syrians’ daily food.

After a number of audio recordings and some videos spread from northern Syria, showing poultry and dead chickens, with farmers’ voices saying that chicken plague had spread in Syria and was causing illness among people.

The Ministry of Emergency and Disasters, together with the Ministry of Health, issued a warning about the spread of chicken plague in Syria. The warning lasted only a few hours on February 9, 2026, before the ministry retracted it, considered it canceled, and said it had been exposed to confusion in the information....

Even the director of the General Poultry Establishment, Fadel Haj Hashem, appeared in two interviews and criticized the two ministries over the warning.

On February 10, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ayham Abdul Qader said on Syrian TV that all the audio recordings had no scientific basis and were rumors.

Returning to the audio recordings that our platform was able to obtain, we noticed that the speakers were focusing on one idea: boycotting the buying and selling of chicken and eggs after their prices rose, while linking the boycott to the spread of disease.

Away from whether the disease spread or not, and amid the contradiction in official statements between warning and confirmation, then denial, and amid the farmers’ audio recordings, there is one fixed fact: the rise in chicken and egg prices in the Syrian market over the past weeks.. and this is the crux of the matter we dug into and researched...

To understand more clearly what exactly is happening...
We would like to introduce you to His Excellency Minister Qutaiba Badawi, ...a man of many responsibilities, wherever you ring, he answers.

He is:
President of the General Authority for Land and Sea Ports, with the rank of minister.
“Chairman of the National Committee for Import and Export.”
Member of the Supreme Council for Economic Development.
Representative of the Supreme Council for Economic Development on the board of the Syrian Petroleum Company.

Previously, he was director of the Bab al-Hawa crossing between Syria and Turkey during... strong word, “during”... during the period when Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham controlled Idlib. Meaning before the liberation.

What does Badawi have to do with chicken?

Badawi issued a large number of decisions during the past period — through his various positions — related to import and export, the latest of which was on January 15, 2026, banning the import of chicks and hatching eggs in support of national production. This was the decision that triggered the rumors, audio recordings, and videos.

The issue becomes more mysterious, and more worthy of investigation, questions, and the curiosity of annoying citizens like us, when the circle expands not only to Qutaiba’s many positions, but also to the positions, interests, and relationships of the entire Badawi family.

And we are not accusing anyone, nor are we saying there is a conflict of interest or favoritism. We are just thinking, not even fishing in troubled waters.

Let us go back in time.

To September 2025, when SANA was celebrating the launch of the Syrian Poultry Association.
The president of the association is...
Muad Badawi.
Qutaiba’s brother.

The association said it was launched to be a channel or bridge between breeders and government institutions. This is Muad we are talking about.

In short, this association represents the private sector in Syria’s poultry industry.

But Muad also has another position, not a government one. Muad is an adviser to Rayan Food Company, and keep this company’s name in mind for a bit.
He is also the head of Ghiras Charity Association.

The epic sequence of events

One month before the launch of the association, in August 2025, Economy Minister Nidal al-Sha’ar was still able to make decisions related to import and export, because he was the Minister of Economy, and at the time he issued a decision banning the import of frozen chicken.

At the time, breeders were happy and said: this is how decisions should be.. this is support for the national economy.

The breeders were too quick to celebrate.

One month after his first decision, al-Sha’ar partially reversed it. The ministry issued a special exemption for meat-processing factories.. mortadella.

Farmers and poultry breeders protested the decision and considered that factory owners would resell the surplus they had in the market, bypassing the decision.

In November 2025, the National Committee for Import and Export was established, and its chairman became..... Qutaiba Badawi. Economy Minister Nidal al-Sha’ar was turned into a vase when it came to import and export, and the committee became responsible for deciding everything related to import and export, from tomatoes and eggs to motorcycles.

And Qutaiba signs the decisions twice: once in the name of the National Committee, and once in the name of the Border Crossings Authority.

Here, Qutaiba’s role with his brother Muad temporarily ends, making room for a new member of the family.

The mortadella...

Today in Syria, there is a factory called Rayan Food, producing mortadella called Rayan.

Rayan Mortadella.. or Rayan Food Company.
And who is the chairman of its board? Who? From which family?

Saad Badawi Abu Salmo is the company’s executive director.
And this company is owned by the Badawi family.

It was founded in 1996.
It began producing mortadella in 2023, specifically in July.

Rayan does not only produce its own mortadella; little by little, it may end up controlling all mortadella production in the country...

What is interesting is that we found a company called Rayan Food registered in Britain since 2021.
But this proves nothing, says nothing, and means nothing....

The conspiracy theory grows among a group of Syrian economists when they mention the following information:

If you remember how al-Sha’ar allowed the import of frozen chicken for mortadella factories, Rayan Food benefited from this exemption and imported 1,700 tons of chicken breast meat, which is usually not used in mortadella production. According to what Al-Hurriya newspaper said, large quantities of these tons were pumped into the market to be sold directly before being processed.

The second piece of information being discussed by economists, and it is unverified:
But our wise government is a perfect fit for such stories and has precedents.

Rayan Food signed a contract to supply mortadella to the Syrian army, meaning a deal worth millions of dollars... once again, this is malicious talk and needs transparency from the state to say whether it is true or not.

This brings you back to small breeders, or to the angry audio recordings, where it was clear that they had an interest in boycotting the purchase of chicken meat and eggs, not only because of their rising prices, but because of the process of monopolizing manufacturing and production in the market, which may, without you realizing it, reproduce the model of Assad-era businessmen as much as possible.

The consumer

Do you want us to go back to the plague? Once again, we neither deny nor confirm.. So we went down and asked people what they had heard, what they thought, and whether the price had risen recently.

foxpop

We have no choice but to listen to what official sources are saying, but you should pay attention: they do not always tell you everything.. because this is their habit everywhere in the world, strong word, “habit.”

We know you got a little lost.
Let us organize things for you again..

Back to the Badawi family.

According to writer Hussam Jazmati, we have four brothers from the Badawi family:

Qutaiba, holder of four positions.
Muad, holder of three positions.
Musab, director of Naqsh Publishing House, the house that printed the books of Mr. Hussein al-Sharaa between 2020 and 2023.
He was also the former director of the Planning and International Cooperation Authority, before its name was changed and it became part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under our fox.
And Hudhaifa, who was formerly a security official in Tahrir al-Sham, with no information available about any current position he may hold...
And a group of cousins who own factories and plants in the country.

If you feel there is a conflict of interest, favoritism, or smell the scent of corruption, that is your problem. Go solve it with yourself.

The Al-Badawi Family... Positions and Gains in This Homeland