Incentives for farmers to produce more halloumi

With one day left till the initial ten-year transition period for producing halloumi according to PDO guidelines expires, Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou on Monday presented incentives and measures to help farmers increase their production.

She said the aim is for production to move from seasonality to all-year production, boost exports and clamp down on violators of the regulations.

Panayiotou also outlined the new regulations determining the quota for the Protected Designation or Origin (PDO) halloumi, which she described as “our common heritage.”

For the period from February until August 31, 2025, the quota for sheep and goat milk in the cheese increases by 5 per cent to 30 per cent.

In the seven months till then, production remains the same, with sheep and goat milk at 25 per cent.

For the dry period (September to January), there were two regulations, one for 10 per cent and one for 19 per cent, which now become the average of the two quotas, set at 15 per cent.

The new regulation to be issued will be annual and the average quota set is 23 per cent, while the average quota for 2023-2024 was 18 per cent.

Thus, Panayiotou said, there is an increase of 5 per cent and a shrinking of the seasonal period to five instead of six months.

The agriculture minister said this was helpful to all farmers.

She explained that all farmers – year-rounders and seasonal – will be able to increase their production and transition to a production procedure without seasonality.

All farmers will be able to adapt to the new environment with no increase in cow’s milk designated for halloumi and a reduction in the environmental footprint of their units, as stipulated in Cyprus’ European commitments.

To achieve this, the agriculture ministry is in the process of completing the final shape of “generous economic measures and tools.”

A meeting with farmers – cattle and goat/sheep – has been set for July 16 to discuss the incentives.

These include incentives to increase the production of goat and sheep milk and gradually reduce seasonality, with emphasis on modern structures and genetic improvement.

Other incentives are increasing and improving production units, increasing the production of cow’s milk for halloumi and reducing the environmental footprint of their units.

Checks will be carried out to determine production is in line with the PDO for halloumi and violators will be reported.

Efforts will be made for increased exports, stricter legislation, monthly monitoring of the implementation of measures, bi-annual reports and an annual meeting of the president of the republic with all involved parties.

A research programme has already been signed with Tepak, the general laboratory and the agriculture department to help determine the locality of halloumi and other data.

“It is important to mention that for 2024, beyond the incentives and measures we will be giving, there are already approved investments of €50 million in goat and sheep farming for 220 people, which will yield significant quantities of goat and sheep milk,” Panayiotou said.

She added that halloumi is “our common heritage.”

“The state is in practice utilising the transition period and continues to support all the involved parties in the production of halloumi, in a way that will preserve it as the main export product and at the same time will secure maintaining the PDO, which enhances the product’s dynamic,” the minister noted.

Panayiotou said the state was doing everything possible to achieve the goals set and would be utilising the five-year transition period recently granted by the European Commission to make sure the halloumi PDO and its exports were safe.

An important milestone in achieving the goals set was the launching of the software measuring goat and sheep milk, scheduled to be installed in October 2024.

The qualitative data to emerge from the new software would constitute a significant basis and would be included in the evaluation of data to set the ratio of milk included in the regulations.