Peach producers suffer from gov't handouts

Macedonian farmers have pinned their hopes for this year's peach harvest on the Kurdish and Syrian refugees and the illegal immigrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan who remain stuck at migrant camps in northern Greece.

The peach producers' invitation to the thousands of unemployed Greeks in the region, offering good money, social security, food and accommodation, has run into the government's social handouts: "We were unable to get them out of the cafeterias. They feel they are OK with the handouts. It's as simple as that," a cooperative farmer in Imathia told Kathimerini.

Last Wednesday, on the initiative of the Consortium of Cooperatives of Imathia Producers, a group of refugees from the migrant center at Alexandria was shown around the fields and the peach selection plants.

The consortium's president, Christos Giannakakis, said an agreement has been reached...