By Jean Christou
THE UNIVERSITY of Cyprus has just completed the first-ever scientific study on Zivania, which it is hoped will persuade the EU to give the strong Cypriot drink a geographical appellation, exempting it from heavy duties.
The government’s attempts so far to seek a special exemption for Zivania have fallen on deaf ears in Brussels, but the study is an attempt to change all that. EU harmonisation would put the same excise duties on Zivania as other imported spirits. The drink is currently taxed at an excise rate of £1.50. Harmonisation will bring the cost up to £3.40.
Professor Haris Theocharous from the University told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the study had taken two years to complete. It had two aims, he said, to prove that Zivania was geographically unique, and to pursue a set of standards for its production.
The British Colonial regime banned the drink in 1948 because they found it too difficult to collect excise duties, sending production underground. The law was only overturned in 1999, allowing producers to market it under its proper name. One of the major producers now is the Church-owned Kykko Winery, which funded the university study.
“Once we have proven, and we have, that Zivania is a unique product, we can then go to the European Union and ask for Zivania to be registered as a geographical name like Champagne or Cognac,” Theocharous said. “But the main thing is that it was the first scientific study carried out anywhere to characterise it and prove that it’s unique.”
Theocharous said the drink’s uniqueness comes from combination of the soil composition, the methods of production, distillation and the times that the grape residues are collected. The study included both commercial samples and homegrown.
“The two are similar, but, chemically speaking, there is a very wide rage of compositions, which shows the need for standards,” Theocharous said. This is designed to protect consumers from lesser quality products and set a minimum alcohol content. The current content is 35-38 per cent. It also aims to set a maximum methanol content.
“This is a poison,” Theocharous said, adding that none of the products studied was above the maximum. “None was even close,” he said.
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.
