A EUROPEAN Union demand that either the taste or the name of traditional Cyprus brandy must be changed became a bone of contention between the government and brandy industry yesterday, two days before an expected vote on the relevant bill in the House.
The House European Affairs Committee on Monday discussed a government decision to bring Cyprus into line with a European directive that brandies produced in EU countries should contain at least 36 per cent volume of alcohol per litre. A litre of Cyprus brandy contains only 32 per cent. The island is expected to join the EU in 2003 or 2004.
The committee said that complying with the directive would mean increasing the amount of alcohol in the drink, thus changing its taste and quality, or agreeing to call it something else.
Committee chairman Tassos Papadopoulos said it was his view that if tomorrow’s plenum session approves the government bill then Cyprus brandies might have to be withdrawn from the market.
Government officials have asked for more time to think the matter through.
The committee’s acting chairman, Nicos Cleanthous of DIKO, suggested yesterday that changing the name of Cyprus brandy “would not harm the business”.
“We can’t avoid coming into line with EU standards,” he told the Cyprus Mail.
Cleanthous said he expected the plenum to vote on the bill in question tomorrow but “nothing was certain yet”.
Christodoulos Michaelides, vice-chairman of the Association of Alcoholic Beverage Industries, yesterday blamed the government for allegedly failing to handle the matter well, and warned that the plan would ruin the brandy business.
“We discussed this matter a year ago both with George Vassiliou, chief negotiator for Cyprus’ accession in the EU, and with Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis. We voiced our objections to them and they reassured us that the plan would not be in effect before the island joined the Union. But we were shocked to learn this morning that they want to implement it immediately,” Michaelides, who is a director of Hadjipavlou and Sons Ltd which produces Anglias Brandy, told the Cyprus Mail.
“At 8am we received a letter from the government’s council for vine products asking us to respond to the state plan in the next four hours. I cannot understand what they have been doing all these months,” Michaelides added.
He said the Association had asked the council to see that Cyprus was exempted from the European scheme.
“The same thing happened with zivania, which is a unique drink, and it should happen now with brandy because it is manufactured in a very special way,” he argued.
Michaelides said that the average Cypriot brandy lover liked to have brandy before or after dinner as well as during dinner.
“If we make it stronger then these people will stop buying it.”
Michaelides said that changing the name of Cyprus brandy would also bring sales down.
He fears that approval of the contentious bill would herald the end of the Cyprus brandy market, which was established 157 years ago.
The Association’s vice-chairman said he had invited Papadopoulos to a meeting on the issue.
“We will go as far as attending Thursday’s plenum to block the decision,” Michaelides vowed.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
