Hay for cheese? Barter booms in cash-squeezed rural Greece

Desperate times: Websites like Mermix have sprung up to facilitate the barter trade in Greece's cash-strapped economy as more Greeks resort to it as a means of short-term economic survival. Photo: Reuters

LAMIA, Greece: Wild boar and power cuts were Greek cotton farmer Mimis Tsakanikas' biggest worries until a bank shutdown last month left him stranded without cash to pay suppliers, and his customers without money to pay him. 

Squeezed on all sides, the 41-year-old farmer began informal bartering to get around the cash crunch. He now pays some of his workers in kind with his clover crop and exchanges equipment with other farmers instead of buying or renting machinery.