“Cyprus has done a lot of work and within the next few days there will be an announcement on support measures for citrus,”Kouyialis said.

In Cyprus the embargo largely affects citrus farmers, since out of the €13.5 million in Russian exports €10.7m relates to citrus fruits. So far, the EU did not include citrus in its list of affected products from the ban.

The minister had asked support for Cypriot producers of citrus at the EU agriculture ministers’ meeting earlier in the month.

The EU has announced yesterday that they would stop temporarily the allocation of funds to affected dairy producers because of the overly large amount of application received, many of them believed to be fake.

Kouyialis said that Cyprus was not affected, as it was not part of the specific programme.

He urged Cypriot citrus producers to be reasonable with the numbers they submit in order to avoid the risk of facing the same consequences.

“Because at the end of the day those that have really taken a blow, will not be able to get compensation,” he said.

Source: Cyprus Mail