CATTLE farmers are threatening measures against a government decision to gradually increase the amounts of goat and sheep milk in halloumi to meet a 1985 prototype on the cheese.
“To solve a (milk) surplus problem faced by goat and sheep farmers, they will create a surplus problem with cow milk,” the head of the Cyprus Cattle Farmers’ Association Nicos Papakyriacou said yesterday during a Sigma TV lunchtime programme.
He was referring to an agreement to gradually increase the proportion, and by extent the net amount, of goat and sheep milk in halloumi – which cattle farmers say is not feasible.
Last week, sheep and goat farmers dumped 35 tonnes of their milk outside the Presidential Palace in protest against the dairy industry’s refusal to buy their milk.
Later in the week, they used their surplus milk to make halloumi, offering it to passersby.
By Friday, Agriculture Minister Sophoclis Aletraris said that an agreement was reached with the commerce ministry, farming organisations, and sheep and goat farmers.
Aletraris said that they would introduce a transition period of some five years whereby the amounts of goat and sheep milk in halloumi would be gradually increased to 51 per cent of sheep versus 49 per cent of cow milk.
This would allow Cyprus to have halloumi registered in the EU as a product of protected desigination of origin because it would meet the 1985 prototype.
Although Aletraris and the goat and sheep farmers have said they will be able to slowly raise production to meet export needs, Papakyriacou said goat and sheep farmers “could not respond” to the demand.
“Exports will go down,” because goat and sheep farmers will not be able to increase their milk production to counter cow milk production, Papakyriacou said.
The decision has been taken “a year before a new government so that the new one pays for it,” Papakyriacou said, referring to the February 2013 presidential elections.
“Why not solve this problem three or four years ago?” he said.
Cattle farmers will meet on Thursday to discuss their next steps with reports saying they will be dumping cow milk, just as their goat and sheep counterparts did.
“Our actions will be much bigger than what the goat farmers did,” Papakyriacou said.
Meantime, cheese makers met yesterday with Aletraris agreeing to let the minister know in a week whether or not they wanted to go ahead with halloumi’s protected designation of origin application.
Aletraris said yesterday he had every faith in goat and sheep farmers’ ability to respond to demands.
Papakyriacou was asked earlier in the day to comment on why both minister and goat and sheep farmers said they would be able to increase milk production.
“Words are easy,” he said.
