Producers and supermarkets are sitting on the coals after the opinion of the Attorney General on violations of the PDO specifications for halloumi. All eyes are on the President's Office and today's meeting (10.30) that President Anastasiades will have with a delegation of cheese makers, in the presence of ministers.
The opinion of the Legal Service clarifies once again that for a product to bear the name halloumi the quota of sheep and goat's milk in the mixture must be more than 51% and now the President of the Republic is called upon to find a solution to the whole issue, since producers will now have to comply with the specifications.
At the same time, supermarkets are anxiously awaiting the President's decision, given that the majority of haloumi stocks on the market do not meet PDO standards.
As mentioned in a previous report Cyprus Times, the Pancyprian Retail Association believes that an initial inventory of existing stocks should be made and then given time to be sold.
Moreover, as indicated by the General Secretary of the Association, Mr. Marios Antoniou, "if the specific quantities are withdrawn - considering that there are no large quantities of PDO haloumi in the market - you realize that we will not have haloumi to sell for some time. These are very small quantities of cheese dairies that produce haloumi with PDO specifications. The vast majority of what is on the market is off-spec halloumi."
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