Reducing the growth rate of halloumi exports, canceling orders and unavailable quantities, brought the new restrictive measures imposed in Europe to limit the spread of the coronavirus .
The Cypriot cheesemakers saw for the first time after fifteen years the increasing course of halloumi significantly reduced, especially after October 2020 when the new traffic bans were imposed in many European countries and restaurants were closed.
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As the President of the Cheesemakers' Association, George Petrou, stated in KYPE, the exports were mainly affected in the last three months. For these months, there are no statistics yet, however, as Mr. Petrou mentioned, orders were canceled and the demand decreased, resulting in around 7000 tons of stock in the cheesemakers' refrigerators, out of 35,000 that they export in total.
He also noted that in the previous lockdown in March, demand had not been affected so much, as supermarkets worked harder and the focus in Europe was not completely closed.
“While there was a 20-25% increase as it has been for the last 15 years, we have already fallen to a 10% increase and a little lower until October when there are statistics and by the end of the year, exports are expected to remain at the same levels as last year.” said Mr. Petrou.
This problem is intensifying, as significant quantities of cow's milk are expected to remain unavailable, for which the cheesemakers have already concluded contracts, based on last year's demand forecast.
As Mr. Petrou said, cow's milk also increased, since last year there was no milk to satisfy exports. He also said that even more cow's milk is expected to remain unavailable, since with a new decree of the Ministry of Commerce that came into force in January, the ratio of goat's and sheep's milk that must be contained in halloumi increases from 20% to 25%. Mr. Petrou considers that the required quantities of goat's milk do not exist to meet this requirement.
Fears of direct trade with Turkish Cypriots
At the same time, Mr. Petrou expressed concern about the developments in relation to halloumi exports in the post-Brexit era.
As he said, yesterday Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar raised the issue of direct trade with the occupied territories to the British Foreign Secretary, something that could not be done while Britain was in the EU.
In such a case, he said, there could be more agreements with Turkish Cypriot halloumi producers for export to Britain, who will produce cheaper as they will not be subject to all these controls in the free zones.
Besides, as he mentioned, the trademark for the halloumi that was rewritten in the United Kingdom also covers the Turkish Cypriots.
Mr. Petrou expressed concern about the future of the halloumi, from dangers that lurk from various sides.
Philenews / ΚΥΠΕ
