We call on the Minister of Commerce to take a public stand and clarify whether he actually promised to amend the PDO legislation to serve the interests of cattle farmers, they say
“We call on the Minister of Commerce to take a public position and clarify whether he actually promised to amend the PDO legislation to serve the interests of cattle farmers. If he is not appointed, then he will be a participant in the war of cheesemakers and cattle farmers against Halloumi and our country,” says the Coordinating Committee of Goat and Sheep Farmers in its announcement. At the same time, they note that, at the conference of cattle farmers, the Minister of Trade, without any qualms, tries to sell Halloumi saying “that if today PDO Halloumi is expensive and not competitive, it should be done differently in order to maintain the competitiveness of the product.”
The announcement in detail
We were surprised to learn from a publication in KYPE that at the conference of cattle farmers, the Minister of Trade, without any qualms, tries to sell Halloumi saying “that if today PDO Halloumi is expensive and not competitive, it should be done differently in order to maintain competitiveness of the product.” and leaving open the possibility of varying the quota. Has the Minister realized that we are talking about a PDO product with specific specifications? Has the Minister realized that the only protection for Hallumium is the PDO because otherwise we will not be able to compete in cost with similar products from other countries such as e.g. white grilled cheese from other European countries? We are surprised because the words of the Minister of Trade are contrary to the assurances of the Minister of Agriculture that the PDO will be implemented as stipulated by the legislation, ie 50+%. Do they not get along with each other? We would therefore like to inform the Minister that he has fallen victim to the cattle farmers' misinformation and point out the following:
1) Halloumi PDO is expensive because cow's milk is the most expensive in Europe. It is enough to look at the official ELGO statistics and read that Beef in Greece is currently 0.48 cents and in Cyprus 0.70 cents in contrast to goat and sheep which is 1.56 in Greece and 1.45 in Cyprus.
2) The cattle breeders whom he attended at their event, are dragging Cyprus to the European courts and are disgustingly fighting Halloumi
3) They have signed the agreement of July 2022 and before the ink of the signature was dry, they filed the amendments resulting from the agreement as a presumption in the European court to drop the Halloumi
4) Publicly both the president of cheese makers as well as the General Director of the POA have admitted that the cheese factories never followed the quota in goat and sheep milk due to insufficient controls by the ministry. Simply put, there was an artificial suppression of the demand for goat and sheep milk as a result of which there is no fair price and the industry instead of prospering and growing is impoverished.
5) According to today's publication, based on raw milk production, Halloumi production should be 38,000 tons and not 45,000 tons, but due to the use of milk powder, we are at 45,000 tons.
In other words, the Commerce Minister is asking us to reward illegality and accept the result of the speculation and illegality of previous years as a fait accompli and get on with it. NO, Mr. Minister, we will not give Halloumi to anyone and we will not bend anyone's interests! NO Mr. Minister, Halloumi will be implemented based on legislation and not speculation! NO Mr. Minister, END THE LIES in Halloumi
We call on the Minister of Commerce to take a public position and clarify whether he really promised to amend the PDO legislation to serve the interests of cattle farmers. If he is not appointed then he will be a participant in the war of cheese makers and cattle farmers against Halloumi and our country.
