The Greek sheep sector - an important national asset

Greece is not recognised as a significant sheep farming country in terms of European production.

This assumption stems from the fact that it is not a significant player in terms of sheepmeat exports, but this assessment is incorrect, as the country possesses almost 9m sheep, with sheep farming playing a pivotal role in the country.

The Greek sheep sector was the focus of a recent study tour as part of the EuroSheep project, funded under the EU’s 2020 research and innovation programme.

Greece’s sheep sector is described as the most important national livestock farming activity, accounting for 33% of total livestock farming and 8% of agricultural sector activity.

The sector is based on milking sheep for the production of speciality cheeses (of which Feta cheese is the most famous), yoghurt and other dairy products.

There are in excess of 41,000 farmers involved in milking sheep, compared with over 15,000 farmers milking goats and just 2,500 dairy cow farms.

Figure 1 demonstrates milk production output levels from the different dairy enterprises.

The sheep sector is identified as having a strong territorial importance, not only for its economic contribution, but also from the point of view of social cohesion and the sustainable use of land.

The main areas in Greece where sheep farming is practised are on mountainous and semi-mountainous areas, described as being of low production capability.

This characterises in excess of 71% of the total utilisable agricultural area (29% mountainous and 42% semi-mountainous).

Sheep farming is seen as integral in retaining a human population and generating economic viability in disfavoured rural areas.

Sheep output has followed an upward trend in recent years, with the volume of sheep milk produced increasing steadily, as reflected in Figure 1.

The increase in milk volumes has been underpinned by a combination of improved breeding and genetics, a change in traditional production systems, the utilisation of more supplementary feed and a slight increase in the number of sheep milked (larger flock size), as demonstrated in Figure 2.

The traditional production system practised in the country is shepherded flocks, with a significant percentage utilising grazing in a similar format to commonage grazing.

In such systems, shepherds stay with their flocks and walk animals to fresh grazing daily. The volume of herbage available for grazing appeared low, with sheep continually on the move

These production systems are still the mainstay on the more exposed or rugged terrain, but in areas of improved pasture production and cropping, a higher number of farms are operating a more intensive system where sheep are fed a TMR diet and often confined to an indoor production system.

Diverse production systems and breeds give rise to widely varying output levels. As mentioned previously, soft cheeses are the main dairy produce from sheep, with Greece being famous for its Feta cheese.

Production systems are regionally based, with upwards of 800 different buyers processing sheep milk. This vary in size from farms processing their own milk to large scale processing plants specialising in the export trade.

A high quantity of cheese is produced under Protected Destination of Origin (PDO) status with at least 24 PDO labels currently in existence.

A breakdown of 2021 end-use products shows 216,501t of dairy products produced. Within this, 156,373t were categorised as soft cheeses, 26,699t as hard/semi-hard cheese and 8,538t as whey produce.

Milk and butter produced for consumption on the domestic market are derived mainly from cow’s milk and are consumed at much lower quantities than in Ireland.

The volume of sheep’s milk traded at liquid milk for drinking was recorded at 2,594t, while there were 822t of cream and 7t of butter. Yoghurt production from sheep milk was recorded at 15,033t.

The region in which sheep are farmed and whether or not they fall under PDO or PGI status has an influence on the manner in which lambs are produced.

The conditions under many PDO production systems require lambs to be reared on the ewe for a period of three to five weeks, either on a full-time or part-time basis. Sheep are also milked during this period.

The main marketing system for lambs is milk lamb for the Christmas and Easter trade. Lambs are slaughtered at a light weight and typically sold as a whole lamb carcase.

As such, consumption is very seasonal and there is no real retail trade for sheepmeat, with any volumes present throughout the year from heavier lambs/cull ewes etc traded through local butcher stores.

The light weight of carcases is reflected in the fact that there were only in the region of 35,000t of sheepmeat produced from over 3.1m sheep slaughtered in 2021.

To put this into context, Irish production was recorded in excess of 65,000t from less than 3m sheep slaughtered. Lamb prices in spring were reported as averaging in the region of €6.50/kg to €7.50/kg.

The last three years have proved challenging for farmers. Demand for dairy products was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 and 2020, and this in turn put significant downward pressure on farmgate milk prices.

As demonstrated in Figure 4, milk prices reduced from over 90c/l to 80.1c/l in 2019. This put pressure on enterprises, but farmers were still able to survive at these prices.

Prices increased by 26c/kg on average in 2021 to reach 96c/l. However, production systems are now under more pressure than when prices were lower, due to an escalation in input costs such as feed, fertiliser and energy.

This has led to some farmers reviewing their system and decreasing sheep numbers, or pulling back on their use of supplementary feed.

This has had a significant influence on output, with milk production volumes in March and April falling 5,000t and 4,000t, respectively, as reflected in Figure 5.

Industry sources predict this easing in production volumes to continue, with intensive systems that have invested in more modern production systems most exposed.

Ireland’s participation is led by Tim Keady and Bríd McClearn from Teagasc. They are responsible for co-ordinating an Irish project team comprising farmers and industry stakeholders and also interacting with project leaders from France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK.

The aim of EuroSheep is to create a reservoir of informative and user-friendly best practices and innovations through a combined ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approach.

An exchange of knowledge is supported through workshops at national and international level to produce a package of easily understandable learning support tools.

This is available for the wider sheep community to benefit from, and all information is available through the project’s website www.eurosheep.network.com.