North Cyprus to import meat from Netherlands: Prime Minister

The TRNC is to begin importing meat from the Netherlands with the aim of reducing the cost of meat for consumers, ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel announced on Friday.

Ustel said offers to supply meat had been received from Spain, Romania and the Netherlands, and that they had chosen the Dutch bid.

Meat imported from the Netherlands will be sold at butchers’ shops across north Cyprus, with frozen boneless lamb set to cost 400TL per kilogram, and frozen packaged minced beef to be sold for 300TL per kilogram.

Possibly aware of coming backlash from butchers, Ustel said “there will be no stepping back” from the decision, and that the ‘government’ had also increased the subsidy for raising a lamb locally from 800TL to 1100TL per lamb.

The TRNC's ‘government’s’ decision to begin importing meat from the Netherlands comes after months of stories of Turkish Cypriots attempting to illegally smuggle meat to the north from the south, where it is cheaper.

In March, Turkish Cypriot police found and seized almost two metric tonnes of beef from supermarkets in the Kyrenia.

Two weeks prior, a man had received a fine for attempting to cross to north Cyprus with 143kg of red meat, while a similar sting at another crossing point and the nearby village of Akdoğan uncovered 140kg of beef smuggled from the south.

The TRNC’s ‘government’s’ first attempt at action on the matter to reduce prices for consumers was the implementation of price controls for lamb meat in April.

They decreed that lamb be sold for no more than 550TL at the time per kilogram, with butchers attempting to sell their meat for more than the stated price to be issued fines.

Butchers sidestepped the law, however, by introducing a “service fee” on top of the retail price of lamb. The fee typically ranged between 10 and 15 per cent of the retail price of the meat, thus effectively allowing butchers to charge more.

In addition to the meat imports, he also announced that this year’s financial protocol deal to be signed with Turkey will be worth 14 billion TL to the north.

Costs to be covered by Turkey as part of the protocol will include the completion of the long-awaited new Güzelyurt hospital and the beginning of the project to connect the north’s electricity grid to that of Turkey via a two-way cable.