AgriMin Daea: In a first, EU allocations next year to promote sheep and goat meat consumption

In a first, the European Union will allocate next year funds to promote sheep and goat meat consumption, said Minister of Agriculture Petre Daea, who kicked off on Saturday in Sibiu the national campaign "Choose the sheep". 

"We have a lot to do for this animal, which today is hard to capitalize upon, cheap and, unfortunately, rare. (...) And whereas we, Romanians, started this program, the EU didn't stay behind, announcing us that in the budget blueprint for next year there will be a concrete and direct specification, so they earmark for the first time money to promote the consumption of sheep and goat meat starting from the exceptional capacity of this animal to capitalize on land with natural shortcomings, sheep make good use of 80 percent of such areas," Daea said. 

The Agriculture Minister announced a few days ago in Ploiesti that the EU will allocate six million euro to promote sheep and goat meat consumption. 

One of the Sibiu hypermarkets has a promotional offer of sheep meat at a discount of 20 percent, said Daea. 

The AgriMin, who was on a trip to Sibiu County to promote sheep farming and the use of sheep milk and wool, spoke on Saturday with local sheep breeders. He also received from ewe's milk cheese producers the documents for the 'telemea' Sibiu cheese to be awarded Protected Geographical Indication status. Daea was on the marketplace, tasted some Sibiu cheese, stopped in front of the mall where potted mutton was on offer, and also visited a wool carding mill in the Sadu commune. AGERPRES.