Price row hits sales of lamb
Stockbreeders yesterday occupied slaughterhouses and blocked road junctions in northern Greece following a dispute with merchants over the minimum price for their lambs and goats, whose meat is in demand because of the coming Orthodox Easter feast. The producers halted the slaughter of farm animals and occupied slaughterhouses in Drama and Eleftheropoulis in Thessaloniki to stop fellow stockbreeders from yielding to the merchants’ demand. The move came after merchants refused to offer more than -6 per kilo for the animals despite producer demands for -8 per kilo. «This is blatant profiteering and the main victims are the consumers,» said the president of the stockbreeders’ union of eastern Thessaloniki, Stelios Voyiatzis. An estimated 40 percent of lambs and goats in northern Greece remain in the fold as sales of Bulgarian and Romanian imports rise.
