Former Agriculture Minister Costas Petrides died on Monday at the age of 75.

Petrides, a native of the Paphos district village of Kouklia, served as agriculture minister under late President Glafcos Clerides between 1993, when Clerides was sworn in, and 1997, when he was one of five ministers who were members of Diko to resign after Clerides announced his intention to run for a second term in office the following year.

Prior to becoming a minister, he had studied mathematics, statistics, and computer science at the University of Toronto in Canada, before later going on to complete his postgraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin in the United States.

Clerides’ successor Tasos Papadopoulos then appointed him as commissioner of the Cyprus agricultural payments association in 2003 – a role he held until 2015.