The head of the Butchers’ Union, Halil Akbıçak, said TRNC butchers in TRNC were unable to compete with butchers in the south because they import cheap meat from abroad, Yeniduzen reports. Recently, the union was obliged to sign an agreement to cap the price of meat, a move which was not workable for the butchers, he said.
“If we control the import of meat, we can stop people from buying meat in the south”. He said that meat from Romania costs 7.5 Euros for each animal and butchers can sell it for up to 11 Euros.
The Butchers’ Union talked about the recent changes in meat prices at a meeting. They met at the Taner Akcan Apprenticeship and Adult Education Centre, which is part of the Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Craftsmen and Artisans (KTEZO).
Hürrem Tulga, who leads KTEZO, spoked about how important it is that meat sales don’t go down in North Cyprus. He said that blaming butchers for high prices isn’t fair because they don’t set the prices.
Tulga also said that butchers want to sell imported meat, even though some of it is coming into the country illegally. He said that if imported meat is permitted, they will keep an eye on the market to make sure it’s not sold as local meat.
Halil Akbıçak, from the Butchers’ Union, said that there’s a big problem with meat prices now. He said that prices are going up because there isn’t enough livestock to supply an increasing population. He also said that many people are buying meat from South Cyprus, and more meat is being smuggled into the country.
Akbıçak said that the Livestock Union is being unfair to butchers and the government is taking action without consulting them. He said that even though they disagreed, they had to sign an agreement to fix prices in front of reporters because the government had obliged them to do so.
Akbıçak said that the agreement they made with the government didn’t help fix the price difference between the North and the South.