AKEL General Secretary sounds the alarm on livestock farming: “The sector is collapsing”

 

26 March 2022, ‘Dialogos’ portal

“The livestock sector is collapsing” and the President of the Republic himself must immediately and urgently take an initiative to confront the problems the sector is facing and at the same time prevent the collapse of the food chain in Cyprus, the General Secretary of AKEL Stefanos Stefanou pointed out.

In statements after a meeting he had at the livestock unit of Pantelis Zannettos with other farmers in the Aradippou livestock area, S.Stefanou noted that “this sector always faces problems and needs the state’s care and assistance”.

S.Stefanou referred to the effects of the war in Ukraine, but said that “the problems started earlier, with the increase in the price of essential raw materials that make up the cost of production that livestock farms have, and these problems have been exacerbated.”

He added that “today we had a discussion with livestock farmers and they have conveyed a cry of anguish that the sector is disappearing and collapsing and that this is not some figure of speech.

We need the immediate, urgent and effective intervention of the state, so that the problems are addressed and the sector is kept alive and at the same time the food chain does not collapse and Cyprus will go hungry”.

The General Secretary of AKEL said that what he was saying “is not a figure of speech, it is a reality. And for the state to be able to act, the government and in my view the President of the Republic himself need to take action immediately,” he said and noted that he will contact President Anastasiades since “he has to intervene, pull the strings, push the relevant Ministry and services to take immediate measures on the basis of a plan that addresses the pressing problems that exist.”

“It is not a question of priorities”, the AKEL General Secretary said, calling on the government “not to start referring to costs and saying ‘there is no money’ and what can we do?’. The government cannot but make this a priority issue, since this is a sector that provides food to the country,” he said, adding that “solutions need to be found immediately”.

He also noted that “the farmer’s movement has elaborated specific proposals and the President of the Republic needs to take the initiative, to address the farmers organizations, to listen to them, to issue an order promptly so that measures are taken…Time is running out, we are really in trouble,” he said.

Stefanos Stefanou also said that “the Government must also address Europe, since the day before yesterday the European Parliament urgently addressed the issue of the agricultural – livestock sector and the food chain. Europe rates these risks that we have in Cyprus as very high and we should demand solidarity in order to provide support to these specific sectors.

The General Secretary of AKEL also reiterated that “the proposals are very specific and without much discussion we must see how we implement them. AKEL will continue to assist the people engaged in farming and livestock and to help the development of the primary sector, which is more than necessary for the economy, society and our country”.

On his part, Panicos Hambas, General Secretary of the Union of Cypriot Farmers (EKA), stressed that the General Secretary of AKEL “is at the forefront in defending all that he mentioned, not only with regards the people working in the livestock sector, but also the entire Cypriot people.

Today we join our voice with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the Secretary General of AKEL that the main issue today on planet Earth and in Cyprus too is the survival of the peoples, he said, adding that “the Cypriot people will go hungry if the issue of the primary sector is not put high on the priority list”.

Therefore, he continued, “we suggest that the 36,000 grains that the government will bring from abroad should be allocated, according to a specific programme, free of charge and directly from the port to the farmers in order to reduce their costs.

Furthermore, because this year the dams will exceed 95% of their capacity, water must be given free to all farmers and livestock farmers and those who cannot get water from the southern pipeline should be helped in a different way. That is to say, the government should subsidise the irrigation departments so that farmers and livestock farmers do not have to pay for the water they use.

According to Panicos Hambas, through the Rural Development Programme, veterinary services should be provided by the state free of charge, while he said the P.O.P. must be implemented and controls should be carried out, since it seems that the Ministry of Commerce “was not carrying out the required controls, leaving both farmers exposed – which was actually to their financial detriment – as well as consumers too who didn’t know what they were buying”.

An Attorney General’s opinion clarified from 2006 that for a product to be called a POP “halloumi” specific milk percentages are imperative, he said, adding that they “were not being applied.” “We denounce this and the President must order an administrative investigation to be carried out as the specific checks weren’t carried out,” he said.

In addition, Kostas Nicolaou, a livestock farmer from Limassol district, said that “the industry is facing bankruptcy, meaning that all our colleagues cannot survive not only their pens and their animals, but their families too”.

“Last week we organised a peaceful protest during which we submitted our demands without receiving any response, and we also had no response either from the producer groups we are talking to.” He called for immediate support to be given to the sector and said the most important problems “are pending and there are too many of them.”

The meeting was attended by several Aradippou livestock farmers, AKEL MEP Giorgos Georgiou, AKEL MP Andreas Pasiourtides and Yiannakis Gavriel, AKEL MP for Famagusta and Chairman of the Agriculture Committee of the Parliament, among others.