G. Brokos, President of the Association of Cattle Breeders of the Prefecture of Lasithi, spoke to Echo 99.8 about the problems facing livestock farming in our country and especially in Lasithi and about the price of lambs.
Animal husbandry in Lasithi is on the decline. Currently there are 600 families whose main occupation is livestock farming. Nationwide, lambs and goats are also fewer for three reasons. The first is that the Greek livestock industry is going through a crisis with the government not helping and not supporting the region. The second is the flood in Thessaly which resulted in many animals drowning, and finally climate change.
Regarding the price, Mr. Brokos said that a 10 kg animal has a production cost of 120 euros. Breeders sell it at an average price of 7 euros. If we add the VAT and the wholesaler’s profit to this amount, the product is delivered to the butcher at a price of approximately 11 euros. This leads the breeders to a dead end, as those who do not have the privilege of subsidies have virtually no profit. Regarding the Greekization of amnoerifia, he said that it is known that there are not enough personnel in the competent customs service to carry out checks on imported amnoerifia, however the production cost is also quite high there and thus these products are also expensive now.
The revision of the CAP does not believe that it will significantly affect the animal husbandry of our country. He believes that the EU will gradually reduce or eliminate subsidies to the primary sector. This will be done, in his opinion, because if Ukraine enters the EU, the countries of central and northern Europe will prefer Ukrainian products as they will be cheaper and thus there will be no reason to support the south for the production of livestock and agricultural products . The new CAP, effectively abolishing greening and promoting Ecological Systems, was used by the government to distribute the farmers’ money to many, such as the certification companies.
In closing, he spoke about the lack of funding for the transport equivalent. In previous years, applications were made only from the prefecture of Rethymno, with the government generously giving the money without any control. This year, all prefectures of Crete applied, and thus the number quadrupled, with the government declaring that no money would be given. Mr. Brokos is therefore asking for the obvious, that is, to implement a simple system, where the breeders will submit feed purchase invoices and each breeder will receive a transport equivalent in proportion to the money he has given for feed.
