The government has introduced measures to address seasonal production challenges in halloumi cheese manufacturing, rather than increasing sheep and goat milk production to exceed cow’s milk by 2029 for PDO halloumi production.
The Halloumi Monitoring Committee’s decisions focus primarily on maintaining current export levels, with the most significant change being the extension of the existing decree until the end of February through a new order from the Minister of Commerce.
The European Commission had previously granted Cyprus until July 2029 to comply with production specifications. Officials are exploring the possibility of obtaining EU approval for applying the required 50-50 percent ratio to the final product rather than raw materials, which experts say would effectively reduce the sheep and goat milk requirement to 35-40 percent due to compositional differences between milk types.
At Saturday’s committee meeting, only sheep and goat farmers opposed the quota decision. Their representative insisted on implementing a 30 percent sheep and goat milk requirement from February 1, but the committee voted to maintain it at 15 percent for another month.
The committee, chaired by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, established several key measures for 2025, including:
- Setting minimum production requirements of 200 litres per animal annually for farmers to receive subsidies
- Capping cow’s milk supply for halloumi production at 227 million litres
- Commissioning an external study on production costs
- Maintaining the sheep and goat milk quota at 15 percent through February, despite regulations calling for an increase to 30 percent, citing reduced production due to drought
- Requiring cheese producers to accept all available sheep and goat milk
- Allocating suitable state land for new sheep and goat farms, with 36 plots available for units of 800 productive animals
The committee will reconvene on February 20 to review the quota levels.
Read more:
