GOAT and sheep farmers yesterday threatened to dump their animals outside the Presidential Palace if the government doesn’t come to their assistance.
Blocking the road outside Parliament yesterday, disgruntled farmers warned that if their problems weren’t solved within 15 days, they would march the busy Nicosia roads with their animals until they reached the Presidential Palace, “where there is plenty of grass for them to eat”.
The president of the Co-ordinating Committee for Goat and Sheep farmers, Panayiotis Constantinou told reporters: “There is grass at the Presidential Palace. It is a way to keep our animals from starving.”
An earlier meeting at the House Agriculture Committee proved there was little that could be done to sort out the dire financial conditions that farmers find themselves in, Constantinou said.
“The Chairman of the Agriculture Committee [AKEL’s Yiannakis Thoma] asked the Minister to return with the government’s data and decisions on what it intends to do within the next 15 days. We have therefore decided to wait these 15 days and see if the government is going to give us something substantial and not just promises,” said Constantinou.
Thoma for his part promised farmers that “we are by your side and we will continue this discussion until there is a practical outcome to strengthen and save the sector”.
Agriculture Minister Fotis Fotiou admitted that “this sector is facing huge difficulties also related to the increase in costs, especially wheat prices”.
He added that the government was determined to support goat and sheep farmers. “There are political decisions on the matter, I have made this clear both to Parliament and the farmers,” said Fotiou. “We have prepared a specific plan that needs to be approved by the European Commission. Everyone must understand that there are no market organisations in sheep and goat breeding and this approval will not be easy,” he stressed.
“We will exhaust all possibilities, we have some suggestions that we are discussing with the Registrar of State Funding and we are ambitious we will reach a support plan that will support this sector, especially during this difficult period,” the minister promised.
In defence of the government, Fotiou said the Cabinet had approved a £7.5 million fund to help the sector, which has begun being distributed.
He said the government was in the process of preparing a plan, which if approved by the EU, would offer financial support to farmers who lost more than 30 per cent in profits.
“The substance of the matter is that we have decided to support this sector,” Fotiou concluded.
Sheep and goat farmers are requesting immediate financial assistance due to the dramatic increase in wheat prices, which have almost doubled recently.
They are also demanding state funding for the production of every ton of milk, the production of healthy milk and the slaughtering of their goats and sheep, benefits that are currently enjoyed by cattle farmers.
