Farmers: EU trade deal undermines agriculture

The Farmers’ Union is protesting that EU will now be allowed duty-free imports of 80 tonnes of lamb to the Faroes in return for duty-free exports of Faroese sprat fish to EU nations.

This new EU trade deal also allows duty-free exports of 20,000 tonnes of fish feed from the Faroes to EU countries. 

The Farmers’ Union has lashed out at this deal, arguing that it undermines the entire Faroese agriculture industry.

“Unfair”

“Eighty tonnes may not seem much, but it is equivalent to about 5,000 lamb carcasses, or 15-20 percent of the total annual lamb output in the Faroes, and that’s a lot,” says union chairman Sigert Patursson 

“We obviously want the best for our fishery and fish farming industries, but it is unfair that the struggling Faroese agriculture industry should act as a bulwark for an industry that has been raking in billions for many years.”

Translated by prosa.fo