Our View: The paradox of halloumi PDO

There is no hidden significance to halloumi acquiring Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status on the same day we mark the establishment of the Cyprus Republic. It is sheer coincidence, as the date the PDO came into force was set by the European Commission, after some seven years of arguments with the Cyprus government, about how the hellim produced in northern Cyprus would be covered by the PDO.

This matter has not been completely resolved yet and the Commission will have a year to do this; the PDO for hellim is expected to come into force in 2022. There are also other unresolved issues, the main one being the milk that will be used, with producers arguing that the 51 per cent sheep and goats milk content would drastically cut output, because the quantities produced are not enough to satisfy their demand. They also fear the strong flavour of halloumi made primarily of sheep and goat’s milk would not appeal to European tastes.

The milk content specification will come into force until 2024 so producers still have two-and-a-half years of producing halloumi with 80 per cent cow’s milk as they have been doing recently. Producers, however, believe they must change the content specs by then in order to protect their interests. They have been pressuring the agriculture ministry, which has said it would submit requests for amendments to the PDO file, warning, however, that amendments would be minor. Requesting major amendments would be tantamount to submitting a new file.

Not trusting the ministry to address the milk content issue, Cyprus cheese producers filed an application to the European Court seeking to annul the PDO. It was a move without precedent in the European Union, the first time that producers had taken legal action against a PDO that is supposed to protect their interests. The purpose of the registering of a product as a PDO is to protect the interests of producers of a certain region or country, but in the case of halloumi, the producers believe the PDO will cause great harm to their interests, hence their opposition to it.

It is an unprecedented paradox, raising the question of who the Cyprus government was seeking to protect with the PDO file it submitted. Halloumi exports were worth €225 million in 2019, and producers insist that the PDO specs will reduce their output by as much as 50 per cent and, worse still, make halloumi less palatable to European taste. What is the justification of the PDO, if halloumi producers, who make such a significant contribution to the Cyprus economy, feel it will harm rather than protect their interests?

We have a little over two years to try and put things right, by changing the milk content specifications in the PDO file, and actually using it to protect the interests of the producers.