In statements on Tuesday, the Minister said the embargo has had an impact on the economy, regarding mainly citrus fruits.

“We will of course be compensated by the European Commission but it takes a lot of work to succeed in absorbing the higher possible amount from Brussels”, he pointed out.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he added, is making every effort to address the adverse repercussions for Cypriot citrus growers affected by the Russian embargo.

Asked about the extension of the Russian embargo on new products, mostly animal products, the Minister said this development does not really affect Cyprus since the island does not export these products.

“I hope that the Russian embargo will not be extended to include more products”, he said, adding that so far, the impact on the Cyprus economy has reached €13 million.

Referring to the registration of halloumi (Cypriot traditional cheese) as a protected designation of origin (PDO), he said that he expects some positive results from the European Commission by the end of the year.

The Minister was also invited to comment on Cyprus’ victory in its bid to protect halloumi as a traditional Cypriot cheese through a court in Greece prohibiting a Greek company from using the name to sell its products in Greece and abroad.

He said that this legal battle was a very important one, and is a message to all those who illegally exploit the commercial name ‘halloumi’.

“I hope that very soon we willregister halloumi as a PDO and we will no longer have similar problems with companies which want to use the name halloumi”, he concluded.

Source: Cyprus Mail