Morphou orange farmers stage protest

Orange farmers staged a protest at the roundabout next to the Morphou bus station on Tuesday over a raft of problems hitting the north’s citrus industry.

Protestors poured hundreds of oranges onto the roundabout and lit a fire to demonstrate their anger.

Speaking at the protest, the Citrus exporters’ association chairman Ahmet Hasturk said “citrus production is an important source of income and the leading export item in the Morphou region.”

He said that problems had arisen in the sector as, despite the fact that the mandora, a cross between the orange and the clementine which only grows in Cyprus, had seen a “golden year” last year, low prices for Turkish products drove down demand.

He explained that low citrus prices in Turkey meant that the per-kilogram wholesale price of mandoras effectively fell by more than half over the course of the last year.

He added that the sector is therefore going through a “painful” period, and also referred to the prevalence of citrus greening disease across Cyprus.