Two weeks before both countries celebrate Orthodox Easter Greece has banned the import of lamb meat from neighbouring Macedonia, Bulgarian daily Dnevnik said on April 15 2008. Lamb meat is the traditional dish for Orthodox Easter in both countries.

Import of Macedonian lamb to Greece was completely stopped, Macedonian newspaper Vecher said.

Macedonian television A1 said that the import had been banned because Athens insisted that that source of the meat would be labelled as Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Because of this, Greek import of lamb meat was now limited to Bulgaria and Romania.

Dnevnik quoted the Union of Macedonian Shepherds saying that the price of lamb meat in Macedonia had fallen to 130 Macedonian denar (about two euro) a kilo.