‘Halloumi’ process to end soon

DESIGNATING halloumi cheese as a traditional product of Cyprus is a process that will end soon with positive results, Agriculture minister Nicos Kouyialis said on Thursday.

The government has taken all measures to ensure that halloumi will be a high quality product that only Cypriot producers – both Greek and Turkish – can manufacture and no one else.

It was a tough fight to prove that the cheese is indeed a Cypriot product which, as a result, escalated to a political issue. For the state however, it was always a technical matter, Kouyialis said while the word “hellim” was added to try and make it easier for Turkish Cypriot producers.

All of Cyprus has been marked as the area of halloumi production even in areas where the European community acquis – legalities which constitute the body of the European Union – do not apply.

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.