An Abbots Leigh farmer is set to realise his ambition to start producing halloumi cheese, after successfully securing funding from the European Union.
Michael Michael, of Haberfield Park Farm, on the outskirts of the city, has been awarded a grant worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to help kickstart his Karpasia dairy project, according to local MP Dr Liam Fox.
After more than a year of wrangling between Mr Michael and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which saw the North Somerset MP stepping in to help expedite the process, Dr Fox said funding for the project had been secured.
The former Defence Secretary described the plans for milking 700 sheep and 300 goats for the purposes of Greek yoghurt and halloumi cheese production as “a major reinvigoration to our rural economy”.
Dr Fox said Mr Michael, who is of Cypriot descent, envisages using the latest milking technology to produce the highest grade Cypriot cheese, made using up to 100 per cent of sheep or goats’ milk.
Traditionally, halloumi used to be made using milk from sheep and goats, but many British and Cypriot industrial cheese-makers now use cow’s milk as the primary ingredient, as it is more readily available, with some halloumi products today containing as little as just 10-15 per cent sheep or goats’ milk.
Dr Fox said the £213,556.49 from Europe, awarded by Defra, will be used to help convert an existing building into the milk processing site. He said the Defra decision followed many months of back and forth negotiations.
Dr Fox, a eurosceptic, said: “I’m delighted. Not only to have helped rejuvenate a local enterprise and create local jobs but to have used EU money to help a UK business to export to Europe is particularly satisfying.”
The Post has seen correspondence between Dr Fox and Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, who was asked to intervene by the local MP after delays to Mr Michael’s grant application threatened to derail the enterprise.
In a four-page letter, dated January 13, 2014, Dr Fox wrote to his Conservative colleague giving the project his full backing: “This is a well thought-out project and has ensured that all the waste products (from whey) go to feed the pigs.
“This is a whole farm plan which will provide employment, re-energise a large local farm, create new products in the UK and create new export opportunities.”
But Dr Fox added that the plans were “being held up in the bureaucratic process”.
He told Mr Paterson: “If we are unable to pass a scheme which allows us to make products such as quality halloumi cheese and Greek yoghurt in this country, with the result that money goes back to the EU to have them produced on the Continent, then it would be a political disgrace.”
He added that it was also important to the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership “that jobs are created in the rural environment in North Somerset and are not simply
Bristol-centric”.
After a series of exchanges, in a letter dated March 19, 2014, Mr Paterson confirmed the good news, telling Dr Fox: “Given your interest, you will be pleased to hear that Mr Michael’s Karpasia dairy project was approved on March 14 with a grant of £213,556.49, subject to project specific conditions.”
While halloumi is a protected Cypriot product in the United States, disagreements among dairy producers and sheep and goat farmers in Cyprus means that the cheese has not been registered as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) under EU law.
Mr Michael declined to comment.
Bristol Post
