Butchers, livestock farmers and farmers in the Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus are demonstrating against the import of ready-made meat and frozen minced meat from EU member the Netherlands. Butchers do not adhere to the price ceilings for locally slaughtered meat.
Meat imported from the Netherlands will be sold at butchers in the north, with frozen lamb costing 11.42 euros per kilogram and frozen packaged minced beef selling for 8.56 euros per kilogram. Prime Minister Ustel said that offers for meat supplies had been received from Spain, Romania and the Netherlands, and that they had chosen the Dutch offer.
Raşit Şenkaya, chairman of the Butchers' Association, said the decision to import Dutch meat was a unilateral one. He pointed out that the butchers would have agreed to the import of carcasses so that they would not lose their jobs. But the butchers oppose the import of ready-made meat and frozen minced meat from the Netherlands.
The Turkish Cypriot administrators want to do something about the high prices of raw milk and meat. The first attempt to address this issue was the introduction of price controls on lamb last month. But the butchers avoided this by introducing a 'special tax'.
In recent months, residents of Turkish Cyprus have seen increased smuggling of meat and dairy products from the neighboring independent southern republic of Cyprus, a member of the EU.
Northern Cyprus is not recognized by any country except Turkey, and the United Nations monitors the 'green demarcation line'. The economy in the north runs entirely and exclusively through Turkey, but it has now been decided to import frozen meat from the Netherlands.