AN EU-backed £24 million strategic agriculture plan has reduced grape production in Cyprus from 100,000 tonnes per year to 60,000, while increasing the quality and variety of the grapes.
The plan eases many of the ills that grape farmers have faced since EU trade liberalisation policies axed many of the subsidies that the grape farmers had grown dependent on. With EU accession, government assistance like the buying and dumping of surplus grapes became illegal.
The money, which goes entirely to grape farmers, does not conflict with EU guidelines. In fact, of the £24 million in the package, the EU is providing £13 million.
Most of the money has already been distributed to farmers. What remains will be meted out over the coming months.
“This is not a subsidy for the producers to produce grapes,” Agriculture Minister Timis Efthymiou told the Cyprus Mail. He referred to the EU-sponsored plan as an effort to halt production of low-grade grapes that wineries cannot use, while also introducing new varieties and increasing the grape quality.
“The European Union gives this money to increase variety. Also, if a country has overproduction, the EU gives these subsidies to lower the production.
“This is an important amount to be put to the repair of our vineyards, which is necessary because for many years we have not had any plan for grape growers.”
The Minister could not confirm whether the £24 million went primarily to large- or small-scale farmers, but he asserted that “the main issue is to reduce production”.
Efthymiou spoke about the strategic plan at a news conference of Wednesday where he also unveiled a separate £45 million Agriculture Development plan dealing with vegetables and livestock.
Even though the £24 million is a boost to the grape-growing industry, the farmers are not necessarily out of the economic red zone. This year, as usual, the farmers and the wineries are clashing over the prices offered for grapes.
Grape farmers from 11 grape-growing villages in the Limassol district gathered with parliamentary representatives on Wednesday in the village of Omodos to send a message to the wineries: if you do not raise the amount you are paying for grapes, we will not send you any.
“We will fight to ensure that we do not deliver even one kilo with these prices,” one farmer said. “These prices are humiliating and they insult a thousand-year-old history and tradition.”
Politis reported that the president of SODAP, one of the largest wineries on the island, stated that the winery would raise the price it is paying for grapes by five pounds per tonne for all grapes except the black ones, which it will raise by £10.
The winery is accepting all grapes except the black ones at its new factory in Stroumbi, which it claims will reduce transportation costs for the farmers. Black grapes will still have to be transported to the Limassol factory, which is why SODAP is paying an additional five pounds per tonne for them.
“Last year we purchased the black grapes for £85 a tonne, but this year we are getting them for £95” said the SODAP committee president Sophocles Pittokopitis. “These prices are not at all satisfactory, I should confess.” Pittokopitis cited serious financial troubles in the company as preventing them from paying any more.
A representative at SODAP declined to talk to Cyprus Mail about the prices they were offering.
The Agriculture Minister acknowledged that there were threats by grape farmers to hold back production, but he felt that this year it would be resolved with a minimum of trouble since there was a drop in production.
“I think that we will not have a problem this year because the whole production is around 60,000 tonnes and from that amount 40,000 tonnes will go to the wineries. Last year the wineries received around 75,000 tonnes, which is almost half that much. So I don’t think they will have too much of a problem.
“The wineries will have to take their responsibilities and announce in time the prices they are offering, and the varieties and quantities of grapes that they will request for the coming year.”
Efthymiou said there was “no way” the wineries would get a subsidy.
