By Nicolas Petros Kaparti
What if the Republic of Cyprus managed, after repeated attempts, to register the right to produce haloumi as a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), producers 'serve' the Cypriot consumer halumia which do not meet the conditions laid down in the relevant legislation.
In particular, the non-existent controls by the competent authorities, combined with the limited sheep and goat milk on the market and the refusal of some producers to adopt the legislation as it stands, causes a 'mess' on the market with the result that consumers buy halloumi without actually meeting the PDO specifications.
In other words, instead of sheep's and goat's milk exceeding cow's milk in the production of haloumi, as approved by the Commission, there are haloumi on the market at the moment with huge percentages of cow's milk with little or no sheep's and goat's milk.
Speaking to the Cyprus[/B][/B] Times[/B] on the issue, the District Secretary of CSR Nicosia-Kyreneia, Thomas Thomas Thomas, pointed out that "the halloumi situation is out of control. For some time now we have been shouting that the legislation should be enforced."
"The legislation is clear what halloumi is and what it means. Essentially goat's and sheep's milk must take precedence over cow's milk in halloumi," Thoma noted.
He explained that "due to the fact that goat and sheep milk was limited, there were fewer quantities and we had enough cows, we had said that the quota in halloumi would be determined by decree of the Minister of Agriculture, with the prospect that by 2024 we would reach +50% in goat and sheep milk, as provided for in the legislation."
That is, at the moment, according to Mr. Thomas, the decree states that it must contain 25% sheep and goat's milk to be called halloumi, but the checks carried out are limited or non-existent, with the result that halloumi that do not even meet this condition are circulating on the market.
From there on," continued Mr. Thomas, "we are waiting for the Legal Service to clarify whether they are entitled to have two types of halloumi on the market, as they said before, but we pointed out from the beginning that this cannot happen. One type of halloumi must be made and that must be under the standard."
Asked to comment on who is calling for there to be two types, Mr Thomas said this is the position of the cheese makers who claim they are exporting under the UK brand which stipulates that halloumi must be 5% sheep and goat and 95% cow. "But we explain to them that this is illegal under the law and that in order for the word halloumi to be displayed it must be under the standard. That is, you can't have halloumi with one percentage and halloumi with other percentages. They are entitled to market it under another name but not as halloumi," he explained.
Asked how many are already on the market now as halloumi, he replied that essentially at the moment there is no PDO halloumi on the market, as required by law. "Very few cheese dairies have started producing PDO halloumi," he added.
It is noted that the CSR has already made 15-point proposals to the President of the Republic, with measures that will alleviate the problems of the agricultural world, such as providing free water to producers, removing the tax on agricultural oil and freezing the instalments of agricultural loans.
Members of the Agriculture Committee are furious about the issue
The whole issue was also raised before the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture last Tuesday, with the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee and an AKEL MP, Yiannakis Garvriil, demonstrating that "six months after 1 October 2021 when the PDO for haloumi was implemented, we still have no mass production of PDO haloumi".
Mr. Gabriel pointed out that the checks carried out by the competent authorities in previous years to ensure that the product was produced in accordance with the specifications were at least incomplete and insufficient, while at the same time he launched a "firestorm" against the government's attitude of not checking the implementation of the current legislation.
He stressed that this "serves certain large economic interests that never wanted haloumi to be registered as a PDO".
For his part, DISY MP, Charalambos Pazaros, pointed out in a statement that the attitude of some of those involved in the production chain of halalumi is damaging to them and does not allow its mass and uninterrupted production as a PDO product, since the extension of the quota issue and the general disagreements between them affect the whole chain and its marketing and jeopardise its recognition as a national product of Cyprus'.
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