Meat imported from the Netherlands will be sold at butcher shops in the north, with frozen lamb priced at 11.42 euros per kilogram, and frozen packaged beef mince sold for 8.56 euros per kilogram. Prime Minister Ustel said that offers for meat supply were received from Spain, Romania, and the Netherlands, and the Dutch bid was chosen.
Raşit Şenkaya, chairman of the Butchers Association, said that the decision to import Dutch meat was a unilateral decision. He pointed out that butchers would have agreed to import carcasses, so they would not lose their jobs. But the butchers oppose the import of ready-to-eat meat and frozen minced meat from the Netherlands.
With this, the Turkish Cypriot authorities want to do something about the high prices of raw milk and meat. The first attempt to do something on this issue was last month’s introduction of price controls on lamb meat. But butchers circumvented that by imposing a 'special levy.'
In recent months, residents of Turkish Cyprus have reported increasing smuggling of meat and dairy products from the neighboring independent southern Republic of Cyprus, which is an EU member.
Northern Cyprus is recognized by no country other than Turkey, and the United Nations monitors the 'green line' demarcation. The economy in the north operates entirely through Turkey, but now it has been decided to import frozen meat from the Netherlands.