The Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Maria Panayiotou, briefed the House Agriculture Committee on Tuesday about the challenges facing the production and trade of halloumi PDO, the checks carried out so far, and the government’s support measures for producers.
Panayiotou said that in 2025 to date, the Competent Authority has conducted nine inspections with nine samples, while the Control Body carried out 11 inspections with 22 samples. These checks identified two cases of non-compliance by the Control Body and one by the Competent Authority. As a result, batches were seized and relabelled to ensure they would not be sold as PDO halloumi.
On export checks, she said that up to 19 September, 250 administrative controls of halloumi PDO exports had been carried out, with six complaints submitted in four countries through the EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (iRasff).
The Minister highlighted the creation in autumn 2024 of an Interdepartmental Committee on halloumi, bringing together all relevant authorities for the first time to coordinate exports. This committee has drawn up a roadmap to address problems in marketing halloumi PDO and is already active at both European and international level. It has identified target markets such as Australia, the UAE and Japan, aiming to include halloumi PDO in trade agreements. Panayiotou added that she personally raised producers’ concerns with her UK counterpart regarding difficulties linked to Brexit.
She stressed that strict checks are applied at every stage, from dairies to retail and exports, with close cooperation between the Agriculture Ministry, the Ministry of Commerce, the Health Services and the State General Laboratory, as well as with European partners to combat imitation products. Since October 2024, dairies have been required to record milk quantities through software, ensuring transparency in sheep and goat milk use.
Panayiotou also outlined support measures for livestock farmers, acknowledging the pressures of rising production costs. These include a pound 30 million investment programme for goat and sheep farming, launched in June 2025, as well as more attractive headage subsidies linked to productivity, with a pound 4 million annual budget. For 2025, two subsidy categories apply based on milk yields, with a transition to a single scheme by 2026-27.
Additionally, she referred to a plan to allocate 26 state-owned plots for large-scale livestock units, offering investment subsidies of up to pound 600,000. Fifteen applications have been received so far, while 25 livestock plots have already been granted.