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A big argument started on the Greek market regarding what should be the price of the lamb only few days before the Christian holyday Easter. The wholesales insist that the price of the lamb this year should be increased in order to compensate for the increased expenses of the stock breeders in the past year. From the Greek union of the stock breeders and farmers are saying that the import of lamb has drastically decreased this year and the local production has also decreased by 30% compared to the levels of production last year. The request of the stock breeders is for one kilogram of lamb to be sold wholesale for a price of minimum seven euro and in the upcoming negotiations with the traders the farmers are not prepared to drop the wholesale price of a kilogram of lamb under six euro.

Currently the traders are keeping the prices of the lamb in the shops at the same level as it was last year. In spite of the crisis in the agriculture and the increased in the past few days VAT this year as well the retailers will sell the meat for prices between 8,5 and 11 euro in the different regions of the country. “We will try to keep the price of the lamb this year before Easter as low as possible. Our goal is the price for a kilogram of lamb not to exceed an average of 10 euro. Unfortunately we know that due to the general economic crisis the people who will prefer a cheaper meat for the festive table will be more this year,” says Nikos Emanuilidis, chairman of the butchers for the region of Thessaloniki.

At the same time the smuggled import of lamb and lamb meat from the neighbor Bulgaria is increasing. With the help of the new system for electronic supervision of the trade with life animals, which acts in all the countries members of the European Union the Greek service for financial violations captured a truck with 152 Bulgarian lambs intended to be sold on the Greek market. The Bulgarian stock is sold for a lot less than 6,5 euro which is the average market price of the Greek lambs. The goal of the speculators was the fast earned profit by presenting the Bulgarian lamb for Greek in the Easter period when in every house in Greece is cooked lamb barbecue.