THE AGRICULTURE Ministry is still in a quandary over how to handle the halloumi recipe but sources have told the Sunday Mail, they may have a solution – registering two separate Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) applications.
“This issue cannot be allowed to go on,” said the source. “By the time we get around to registering halloumi as a PDO it will be too late and the Danes will start mass producing it like they did with feta. They still have three months of the EU presidency left so anything could happen before we get our hands on the big chair in July. We need to act.”
Last week the ministry agreed on a recipe with the goat and sheep farmers that would include a substantial amount of their milk in the making of halloumi to try and return to the product to the original recipe of a majority of goat and sheep’s milk.
This ticked off the cattle farmers who were running a bit of a monopoly with the ‘cow’s milk halloumi’ and didn’t want to share. They’ve now threatened to spill even more milk than their goat and sheep brethren outside the presidential palace.
The source in the Agriculture Ministry said the only solution would be to register two PDOs, one of which would be called halloumi and the other something else. The only issue now would be which one of the two recipes would get the halloumi title – the mainly cow’s milk or the mainly sheep and goats’ milk.
Naming the cow’s milks halloumi has certain benefits, according to the source, who said the cheesemakers were correct in saying that foreigners were more used to the squeaky plastic stuff that’s exported. “But if we do that, then the traditional recipe cheese would have to be called something else like ‘Ye Olde Sheep’s Cheese’ or ‘Palio Tyri’, and we don’t think they sound appetising,” said the source. “If we give the traditional cheese the halloumi name, we have more options for the cow’s milk version such as: ‘I can’t believe it’s not halloumi’, which to be perfectly honest with you, we at the ministry secretly call it: ‘I can’t believe it is halloumi’.
In addition, the source said, the cow’s milk halloumi labels could be adapted for different countries. For the US it could be called ‘Cheese You Can Fry’ and with a small adjustment to give a nod to our growing Chinese market, it could be called ‘Cheese You Can Stir Fry’.
Calling it ‘pseudo halloumi’ would be out of the question however as it could imply a recognition of the north, the source said.
Asked what he thought of the new proposals, a cattle farmers’ representative Hor Atiko said: “What is a farmer really? He is a man outstanding in his own field. Take from that what you will”.
A goat and sheep farmers’ spokesman said however that it would be good for them either way and they might finally be able to afford a haircut and a shave.
Psychologist Trello Komeio when asked why the farmers spill milk as opposed to say filling the streets with cow dung, said it all goes back to babyhood.
“When a baby is annoyed, it throws its milk bottle out of the pram. We all get frustrated and feel like having a tantrum when things don’t go our way but the difference between us and the dairy farmers is that they actually have the milk to proverbially throw from the pram. Clearly it’s symptomatic of a type of childhood regression,” she said.
“In this particular case the media is not helping either. They’re just milking it for all it’s worth.”
