Cattle breeders furious over EU funding for Turkish Cypriots

The cattle breeders’ coordinating committee on Monday expressed fury over the European Commission’s decision to provide €39.5 million in aid for the Turkish Cypriot community as part of its latest “annual action programme”.

They said the funds, which the commission said aimed at facilitating Cyprus’ reunification and supporting the socio-economic development of the community, are “affecting the economy” of the Republic.

They pointed out that €6.5m of these funds have been allocated to increase Turkish Cypriot halloumi producers’ compliance with the EU’s Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) requirements, allowing them to export the product to Europe.

Meanwhile, they said, “attempts are being made to eradicate cattle farming” in the Republic, and this “unlawfully favours the production of halloumi in the occupied territories.

“These actions are the culmination of the right granted, unofficially or officially, by the Republic of Cyprus and by the European Union, to halloumi producers in the occupied territories, to market products without restrictions on the use of goat and sheep milk in third countries,” they said.

The cattle breeders added that Greek Cypriot producers are “required to strictly adhere to quotas in the mixture of milk used for all halloumi production regardless of destination… which increases production costs and creates conditions of unfair competition.”

They added, “we cannot accept that, after 50 years of occupation and 20 years of membership of the EU, we ended up strengthening the occupied territories’ economy with money from Cypriot and European citizens, while at the same time undermining the free areas’ cheesemaking.”

They then called for “equal treatment of the dairy sectors” on both sides of the island and added that “the same conditions should be applied to both sides until a definitive solution is found and our homeland is reunified.

“We cannot tolerate in a semi-occupied homeland that the producers in the free areas are in a worse position than those in the occupied areas and, at the same time, we must contribute to the strengthening of the occupied areas through the EU,” they said.