Malas warns of systemic risk to halloumi production in Cyprus

Halloumi production in Cyprus faces a systemic risk: too few farms supply the milk for it. Professor Stavros Malas, who heads the scientific committee for the recovery of the livestock sector, said this in a broadcast on the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC).

According to Malas, the foot-and-mouth disease crisis did not create the sector’s problems but exposed those that had been building up for years. “In Cyprus’s livestock sector, we did not plan; we improvised,” he said.

The committee proposes restructuring the sector and supporting this with scientific guidance and advice for livestock farmers themselves. The goal is to preserve the export-oriented nature of production while making it better organised, with stricter biosecurity and greater preparedness for new disease outbreaks.

Responding to a question about the risk of the virus being reintroduced from Northern Cyprus, Malas said the threat would decline if vaccination continued and the illegal trade in animals stopped. At the same time, livestock would have to be vaccinated for many more years.

The government presented a 12-year plan to restore the livestock sector the previous day, with a budget of €610.9 million. It allocates €372.225 million to sheep and goat farming, €134 million to cattle breeding and €41 million to biosecurity measures.

The committee also proposes establishing a minimum distance of 300 metres between individual livestock farms to reduce the risk of infection spreading. “That is why we cannot simply return livestock farming to where it was before,” Malas stressed.