AROUND 140 animal-based food industries face closure tomorrow unless they meet EU requirements on health and safety, according to Agriculture Minister, Timis Efthimiou.
Speaking after yesterday’s cabinet meeting, the minister warned people would be left without jobs if those industries did not shape up fast and get in line with EU requirements.
Efthimiou sent out a strong reminder to all food-producing industries that failure to meet the stringent criteria by January 1 means closure and full compliance with EU requirements would allow for a factory to reopen its doors to business.
“Some people will remain without a job, despite the continuous calls by the (Agriculture) Ministry to upgrade their workplaces,” he said, adding that the initial deadline was August 31 but had to be pushed back four months after pressure by food producers for more time.
Chairman of the House Commerce Committee, Lefteris Christoforou, yesterday argued the government had a responsibility to help smaller food companies fulfil their obligations through various financial measures. He also called on the government to pressure Brussels for an extension to the EU deadline, which will affect many animal-based food industries, including a huge number of dairy farms and poultry slaughterhouses that face closure.
According to Efthimiou, from the 267 units in operation, 10 have already closed, around 100 have carried out upgrades, another 40 are in the process of making upgrades and are expected to meet tomorrow’s deadline. About 100 will not make the mark and face immediate closure.
“Many have made the necessary changes, others have not. We are obligated to send a letter to those that failed to meet the requirements that they can no longer operate,” said Efthimiou.
Small and medium-sized food producers, particularly dairies, have called on the minister to extend the deadline to avoid the majority of small dairy farms from closing down. Many family-run units have argued they need more time to adopt the new criteria given the difficulty involved due to their size.
DISY deputy Christoforou said he sent a letter asking the government to seek an extension from Brussels for as long as possible to give the industry a chance to conform to the new requirements. “The EU does not want to slaughter our economy. They will listen to us but we have to fight hard for what we want, like Poland does,” he said.
Christoforou told the Cyprus Mail he got reassurances from EU Harmonisation Coordinator for Cyprus, Takis Hadjidemetriou, that he would bring up the issue of an extension for animal-based food units when next in Brussels.
The DISY deputy said Cyprus did not fight hard enough in the past and lost as a result. He referred to the battle to designate Zivania as a national drink, affording it a special tax status, which he said officials failed to do. The deputy argued for a more proactive stance in Brussels: “Being a small country is an advantage to us because we don’t affect the common market so much and therefore our demands will not be judged in the same light as Poland for instance which is a country of millions”.
Christoforou called on the government to come to the aid of hundreds of businesses that face extinction due to their inability to meet EU accession criteria.
“There needs to be some sort of support, like a harmonisation fund, which gives financial assistance, either through low-interest loans or whatever, to small and medium-sized industries that are reaching their sell-by-date,” he said.
The state and the citizen should bear the cost of accession together, not the citizen alone, he argued. He called for the setting up of a government agency which would gather information about various aid and assistance offers by the EU and notify relevant industries of the existence of these schemes.
Lastly, he repeated the need for public information centres to be set up to answer general queries about the EU.
