THE GOATS parked outside the Presidential Palace all week saw white smoke puffing from its chimneys yesterday after the warring parties in the longstanding halloumi saga finally reached agreement.
Agriculture Minister Sophoclis Aletraris announced yesterday afternoon that the government, farming organisations and sheep and goat farmers reached a deal on the share of goat, sheep and cow milk in halloumi after a meeting at the palace with Aletraris, Commerce Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis and Undersecretary to the president Titos Christofides.
Sheep and goat farmers arrived with livestock in tow last Monday outside the executive office to protest against the dairy industries refusal to buy their milk, which they claimed left tonnes of milk going to waste.
Highlighting their point, they spilled around 35 tonnes of the white liquid on the street outside the Palace. By mid-week, they changed tactic using the surplus milk to produce halloumi, which they distributed in bags to passersby.
The sheep and goat farmers said they would stay put until Easter if their demands were not met.
Apart from the unused milk, at stake is the future of halloumi as an EU-recognised Cypriot product. The 1985 prototype for halloumi states that the majority of milk used to manufacture halloumi must be sheep and goat milk, not cow milk, though farmers claim this was never followed.
Cheese makers countered that the sheep and goat farmers simply cannot meet the amounts of milk needed to produce the quantities of halloumi they do.
Getting the EU to recognise those high levels of goat and sheep milk in halloumi would prevent cheese makers from exporting the amount of halloumi they do today abroad. For this reason, they decided in February to freeze a request to the EU to have halloumi registered as a protected designation of origin (PDO).
Yesterday’s meeting solved at least one problem, the quantities of sheep, goat and cow milk needed to produce halloumi in Cyprus.
Speaking outside the palace and surrounded by victorious farmers, Aletraris said the sides agreed that “for the period December-June, halloumi must contain at least 35 per cent sheep and goat milk, while for the period July-November, the minimum amount will be 23 per cent.
“In this way, we will have demand for the milk and hopefully prices will remain reasonable,” he added.
The minimum levels have been set for a five-year transitional period, ending in 2017.
“The transitional period is there to allow for the gradual increase in production to meet the prototype of 51 per cent sheep and goat milk with 49 per cent cow milk within five years,” said the minister.
Aletraris said the agreement will ensure milk produced is not left unused while legislation will be tabled to provide penalties on those who do not stick to the agreed levels of milk in halloumi, he added.
Asked whether this would have any impact on the dispute over the PDO request, the minister said this was a totally separate issue that depends on the cheese producers who will decide next Monday night. “We’ve been trying very hard the last few months (to unfreeze the application). I believe we can reach an agreement,” he said.
In the meantime, the agreement left sheep and goat farmers happy as pigs in mud.
Head of farmers’ union Panagrotiki, Michalis Lytras, said: “We have now solved a longstanding problem, stretching over three decades.”
General Secretary of the Cyprus Farmers Union, Panicos Chambas, said the agreement marked “the greatest success of the farming movement”.
Head of the Euro-farming Union Savvas Papademetris called on all farming sectors to follow the lead of sheep and goat farmers since their protests paid off.
Head of Agrotigis farmers’ union Giorgos Moutsas hailed the victory, saying goat and sheep farmers were no longer the “bastard child of society”.
Earlier in the day, president Demetris Christofias met the children of the farmers at the Palace, where he told them their parents had his support.
