Paphos Life

The Cyprus Cheesemakers Association and 11 other applicants have appealed to the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union, arguing that the Court should annul the European Commission’s decision to enter the terms ‘Χαλλούμι’ (Halloumi)/’Hellim’ into the register of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications.

Read the article and chat about it below...

I read the whole article but can't understand what their objection is.

It may be another manifestation of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot state of play. Maybe there is an objection to Hellim being included? Or perhaps there is a shortage of the goats milk which must be included to make a certain percentage when making this cheese.

Dee

Dominic wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:58 am I read the whole article but can't understand what their objection is.

It's all frivolous nonsense aimed at stopping the PDO because they can no longer meet international demand without watering down (with cows' milk) the requirements of the conditions that their own government set a decade ago. It will surely end in failure.

Kili01 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:03 am It may be another manifestation of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot state of play. Maybe there is an objection to Hellim being included? Or perhaps there is a shortage of the goats milk which must be included to make a certain percentage when making this cheese.

Dee

It's the latter reason. There isn't enough sheep's and goats' milk to meet demand, and the PDO prohibits cows' milk being used. The Cypriot government prevaricated too long over the application, so when approval finally came through, it no longer met the reality of halloumi production. It's hard not to blame both sides, really.

I seem to remember that some years ago there was an outbreak of Scrapie disease which affects sheep and goats. As a result a large number of these animals had to be slaughtered. But what surprises me is that apparently little effort was made by farmers subsequently to increase in numbers their herds of these animals given that there would continue to be a more or less guaranteed sales market for this milk to manufacture halloumi.

Dee