In Cyprus Halloumi war, an ex-pilot champions the old ways
On a cold winter evening in a car park in the Cypriot capital Nicosia, queues are already forming before former airline pilot Pantelis Panteli arrives in a small van to sell his produce.
After being made redundant following the closure of Cyprus Airways in 2013, Panteli decided to try his hand at cheese-making. He hasn’t looked back.
Now the newcomer has become an unlikely bastion of an old tradition amid a bitter legal battle about the ingredients of Cyprus’s prized halloumi. Should it be made from cow’s milk — which now forms the bulk of exports and has a mellower taste — or from tarter goat and ewe milk, which some purists swear by?
Panteli makes halloumi exclusively from ewe’s milk, even though some dairy farmers on the Mediterranean island say that method is not viable.
“Nobody is making the real thing anymore, and that is our aim,” he said, standing in a pen with about 300 sheep at his farm in Kokkinotrimithia.
Panteli started making halloumi with guidance from his mother-in-law. Now he has his own ‘Kouella’ brand — Cypriot for ewe.
“It was all trial and error with a small pot, then a bigger pot — and just like Steve Jobs — in our garage,” he said.
Panteli only has a permit to sell direct to consumers, and is restricted to producing 150 litres of milk per day at a new purpose-built dairy in the farm compound.
But he is proving popular. He alerts customers to his whereabouts on social media, and makes videos on Tiktok and X. Within two hours, he is normally sold out.
Soft, rubbery halloumi can be eaten raw, grilled, boiled or fried without losing its shape. It is the island’s largest export after pharmaceuticals.
It has been three years since Cyprus won its status as the only country able to produce and market the prized cheese. In gaining a protected designation of origin (PDO) from the EU, Cyprus committed to increase the quantity of ewe or goat milk to just over 50pc by July 2024.
But the dispute about ingredients has triggered farmers’ demonstrations. Industry stakeholders say ewe and goat’s milk is highly seasonal, so could have an impact on production capacity. Cheese makers had threatened to shut their dairies because there wasn’t enough milk, while cattle-breeders are angry at the threat to the market for cows’ milk.
Authorities now plan to push back full compliance with the specifications to 2029.
Nicos Papakyriakou, director-general of the cattle-breeders’ association, said that based on an older 1985 trade standard, accepted ingredients for halloumi were not only goat and ewes’ milk, but cows’ milk as well.
He says it is the mellower cows’ milk that has allowed halloumi to capture overseas markets.
“The PDO says it should smell like a farm,” he said, referring to official product specifications that halloumi should have a ‘barnyard’ smell.
“It would smell like goats! What consumer abroad would buy that?”