Greece: Meat prices soar due to plague of sheep and goats

Farmers and meat traders are reporting a rise of up to one euro per kilogram due to the plague of sheep and goats.

Let us recall that from July 29, the Ministry of Rural Development imposed a quarantine on all herds in the country, that is, it prohibited any movement of animals for fattening, breeding and slaughter due to the plague. In other words, Greek lambs and goats were “cut off” from the market, which had a negative impact on Greek farmers, especially in the run-up to August 15, the traditional day to eat this meat.

However, as Nikos Palaskas, president of Thessalian Farmers, points out in an interview with newsit.gr, the damage to Greek farmers (lambs and kids) will be relatively small, because they only cover 20% of supplies during this period, while 80% comes from Romania.

However, if the quarantine is introduced any time between October and March, the damage to Greek farmers will be, on the contrary, greater. The main loss that farmers suffer at this time is related to feeding the herd, since they are forced to feed it exclusively with feed. This resulted in a doubling of the cost of feeding – from 0.5 euros per day per animal to 1 euro per day per animal. Farmers have already turned to the state for compensation to cover the increased costs of feeding.

At the same time, there is evidence of how the quarantine on sheep and goats will affect prices for other types of meat, in particular beef and pork. Although their prices have not yet increased, there is an opinion among butchers that by the end of this month, if there are no changes on the quarantine front, they will increase by 1 euro per kilo, which means an increase of 5 to 10%. For example, the price of a kilogram of beef could rise from 12-13 euros to 13-14 euros, and the price of pork from 8-9 euros to 9-10 euros.

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