Stock farming ‘under threat’

The value of meat and milk imports has exceeded those of oil over the past seven years, indicating that Greek stock farming is struggling to meet the country’s demands, livestock veterinarians said in Thessaloniki yesterday. Greece imports around 50 percent of its cow’s milk and dairy products and up to 75 percent of its beef, Aristotle University Professor Spyros Kyriakos said ahead of a Panhellenic conference on livestock farming that opens in the northern city today. Greek stock farming is only 100 percent self-sufficient in producing sheep’s and goat’s milk, Kyriakos said. Around 85 percent of lamb and goat meat is produced domestically, but this rate would need to reach 150 percent to leave room for exports, he added. The only promising activity is fish farming despite the recent drop in prices, according to Kyriakos.