GOAT AND SHEEP farmers yesterday warned they would leave their animals to die outside the Presidential Palace unless the government increased feed subsidies.
The liberalisation of the market after EU accession has plunged the animal farming industry into crisis, and farmers fear they will be forced to destroy thousands of animals in a desperate effort to stay afloat.
Grain prices have soared from £60 a tonne to over £100, forcing farmers to resort to feeding their animals with straw and clover, and although the government has pledged to pay a £17-a-head subsidy at the end of the month, farmers told the Sunday Mail yesterday the money was not enough.
In the Astromeritis area in Nicosia, 24 out of the 25 farmers are trying to sell their farms and quit the business.
“We simply cannot survive,” Solon Melis, member of the temporary Nicosia Farmer’s Company said.
“It’s no nuclear science, it’s simple, no money means no food for the animals, and no food for the animals means starvation,” he said.
“I am the only farmer here that will not sell my animals because that’s my business, I studied this, whereas the rest of them can go and do other jobs.”
But Melis said that wanting to sell their animals didn’t necessarily mean that they could, since competition from other EU countries has left local producers reeling.
“Cyprus meat is practically worth nothing,” he said.
“A few years ago we sold lamb at £1.75 a kilo, but now they only buy at £1.25, I want the government to tell us how are we supposed to survive when our cost of production is greater than our sales?
“We used to buy grain at £60 a tonne, now it costs £100, the only way out is to sell out, but the government should buy us out, they should compensate us.”
Melis warned that if the government remained idle on the issue of subsidising feed, farmers from all over Cyprus would drive their animals outside the Presidential Palace and leave them there to die.
“We have tried other ways to feed them, but it’s not enough,” he said.
“You can ask why we need to feed them grain since the animals can graze, and the answer to that is that we are not allowed to take them out to graze.
“The animals have to stay indoors for eight months because during that time, the grain farmers plant and grow their crops, and they complain that our animals will destroy their crops if we let them graze on their land.
“Other countries give acres and acres of land to farmers to be used for grazing, but in this country, as much as we have tried, it’s impossible. We are in an agricultural prison.
“The minister (of Agriculture Timis Efthymiou) promised that he would meet with us at the end of the month, and we are hopeful that he will find a solution, but if he doesn’t, then they should be prepared to receive thousands of sheep and goat corpses.
“Instead of the animals dying in my farm, they should die outside the palace so they can see what they’ve done,” he added.
“The £17 are not enough and he knows it; if his food was £1 and the government charged him £14, what would he do?”
Melis said that if the government also subsidised the price of slaughtered meat, the farmers would be able to compete with other EU countries.
“Our meat is as good if not better than theirs,” he said.
“We could compete easily if the government helped us, but for the moment, it’s us who are being slaughtered by outside competition,” he added.
Melis said animals around the island were starving to death already, and that milk and meat production was dwindling.
“Now the animals will die, most have stopped feeding, and what will happen is that the animals will lose weight and die. They will starve to death,” he said.
“We are trying to form our own company in an effort to produce enough to cover the market and be able to do business with milk and cheese companies, but that will cost £25,000 and again we have to pay it out of our pockets.”
