Turkish Cypriot butchers protest as consumers buy from Republic

Turkish Cypriot butchers on Friday called on the north’s ‘government’ to act as consumers desert them to buy cheaper meat in the Republic.

They staged a protest at the north’s slaughterhouse, slaughtering two lambs.

After the protest, the north’s butchers’ association said the ‘government’ must take “urgent measures” and “find a solution which would allow meat to be sold at a price range in line with the prices in South Cyprus.”

“We are currently seeing our own citizens travel to South Cyprus to do their shopping. This has brought vendors, who have been crushed under the weight of economic difficulties, to the point of bankruptcy, meaning they cannot cover basic expenses like their electricity bills or rent,” they said.

They said the increase in the price of livestock in the north has “seriously damaged” butchers, who have no choice but to pass these price increases onto consumers, while the stock of meat in the north has plummeted due to a lack of demand.

“We are throwing away meat we cannot sell because it stinks, and as a result animal slaughter has hit rock bottom,” they said.

While this crisis is worsening, they said, “the government is acting as if everything is rosy.”

To this end, they added their “sadness” that no steps have been taken to ameliorate the situation by either helping control the prices or staving off the decreasing purchasing power of people living in north.

“They should not forget that we, who live in this country, and try despite great difficulties to do our job, pay a lot of taxes to the state, and are an integral link in the chains of production and tourism.”

“If this link breaks, and it is about to break right now, we will face a much more serious situation,” they said.