Eunite: Halloumi/Hellim PDO
As part of the European Union (EU) funded eunite Programme, eunite:Halloumi/Hellim PDO is a dedicated €13.3 Million project focused on:
- Contributing to increased island-wide economic convergence and implementation of EU standards in the Turkish Cypriot community (TCc) by strengthening alignment with animal health, sanitary and phytosanitary requirements; and
- Supporting efforts to enable Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) compliant Halloumi/Hellim crossing the Green Line.
The European Union is dedicated to empowering the Turkish Cypriot community in seizing the full potential of the economic development and market opportunities offered by the PDO Halloumi/Hellim in the EU market.
€13.3 Million investment
€13.3 Million investment over 39 months focused on increasing island-wide economic convergence and supporting the implementation of EU standards in the Turkish Cypriot community.
€ 4 Million grant support
€ 4 Million in dedicated grant support for dairy farmers and producers to help them meet EU food safety standards
Improved livestock health
Improved livestock health, sanitary and phytosanitary standards in the Turkish Cypriot community, helping enable Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) compliant Halloumi/Hellim access EU market
The eunite:Halloumi/Hellim PDO project focuses on enhancing sanitary and phytosanitary standards and further improving animal health in TCc through a range of interventions that build on and complement years of EU support to veterinary, food safety, agriculture and rural development sectors. The eunite:Halloumi/Hellim PDO work in a nutshell:
Supporting the implementation the EU Halloumi/Hellim PDO scheme and related EU food safety standards throughout the dairy production chain
Through grant schemes that help farmers and dairy producers upgrade their production to meet EU food safety standards and improve market access.
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Enabling higher standards of animal welfare at sheep and goat farms
Through improving animal husbandry conditions at sheep and goat farms.
Supporting animal disease eradication and animal health management in the Turkish Cypriot community
- By enabling further eradication of brucellosis among cattle, sheep and goats.
- By improving confidence in the reliability of data on the status of animal diseases in the Turkish Cypriot community.
- By strengthening access to veterinary medicinal products authorised by the European Medicines Agency for use in beekeeping.
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Improving monitoring of residues
- By delivering residue monitoring in accordance with the EU standards.
- By enabling access to laboratory equipment.
What we do
The eunite:Halloumi/Hellim PDO project aims to improve compliance with EU standards, increase productivity and enhance the effectiveness of monitoring in food production chain. It also aims to strengthen animal disease control measures in order to ensure higher levels of quality, safety, and reliability in food production, and therefore better public and animal health.
eunite:Halloumi/Hellim PDO delivers a comprehensive range of actions to achieve these objectives:
Access to finance
We offer financial support to help dairy farmers and producers move towards full implementation of EU food safety standards and increase their production capacity, with a particular focus on the EU Halloumi/Hellim PDO.
Procuring shelters for goats and sheep
We provide farms with purpose-built, modular animal shelters made of durable materials that protect animals from extreme weather conditions. These shelters help reduce infant mortality rates and improve livestock performance. Healthier, higher performing animals support farm profitability and increase the supply of small ruminant milk to the Halloumi/Hellim PDO sector.
Providing veterinary medicinal products
We enable access to veterinary medicinal products authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for use in beekeeping. This supports better health management of bee populations and integrated pest management
Procuring tests and consumables for animal health surveillance
We provide the tests and consumables needed to detect and manage animal diseases in the Turkish Cypriot community.
Sampling and testing for animal diseases
We carry out sampling and testing to support animal disease surveillance and eradication and strengthen effective disease control measures.
Monitoring veterinary medicine residues, pesticides, and contaminants
We monitor residues of veterinary medicines, pesticides, and contaminants to help ensure the absence of harmful substances in food of animal origin produced in the Turkish Cypriot community.
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Grant Schemes
Innovation is essential for the competitiveness of farmers and dairy producers, alongside maintaining quality, ensuring sustainability, and meeting EU food safety standards. However, limited access to finance often constrains their ability to upgrade production processes, modernise facilities and equipment, and improve both capacity and compliance.
Through the eunite grant schemes -under the eunite:Halloumi/Hellim PDO project, we offer targeted financial support to enable these improvements—helping business strengthen compliance, enhance production standards, and become more competitive and resilient.
We implement two grant schemes with a total value of €2.8 Million to support the implementation of the EU Halloumi/Hellim PDO scheme.
Our background
eunite:Halloumi/Hellim PDO represents an important step in the European Union’s ongoing commitment to support Turkish Cypriot producers in meeting EU food safety and animal health standards. These standards are essential requirements to enable the integration of Turkish Cypriot business into the island-wide economy and the European single market.
In addition to its ongoing support for compliance with these standards, the eunite Programme aims to further strengthen this assistance, increase the quantity and quality of PDO compliant small ruminant milk, and complement the efforts of the parallel technical assistance projects implemented under the Aid programme.
The eunite:Halloumi/Hellim PDO project under the eunite Programme builds on past achievements, which are accessible on the websites of the parallel and past projects, and aims to contribute to confidence building and promote economic convergence across Cyprus. It helps ensure compliance with EU standards.