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On Your Farm: Farmhouse Halloumi in Cyprus

Farmhouse Halloumi in Cyprus

BBC Radio 4 - On Your Farm, Farmhouse Halloumi in Cyprus

Leyla Kazim visits a daring cheese farmer making farmhouse halloumi/hellim in Cyprus.

Meet the Cypriot pilot-come-cheese farmer fighting a one man battle to produce and export his farmhouse halloumi cheese.

Pantelis Panteli is a commercial airline pilot, but these days you're more likely to see him in his open-sided sheep barn than in an aircraft hanger. A few years ago, he decided to move into farming Chios sheep and use the milk to make halloumi, or "hellim" as they call it in the north of the island - the Cypriot cheese which has long been associated with this Mediterranean island.
 
It was an unlikely career change, but as Leyla Kazim finds out, his cheesemaking operation is even more unusual. Halloumi/hellim is Cyprus' most important industry. Since 2021, it has had Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status - which means that any cheese labelled as halloumi/hellim in the EU has to be made on the Mediterranean island to a traditional recipe. Most of it is made at scale, but Pantelis wants to produce, sell and export what he calls ‘traditional halloumi’ which meets and exceeds the PDO. 

Leyla meets Pantelis, his family, his staff and his sheep - to hear how he makes the traditional cheese and how he is fighting the authorities for permission to expand his business.

Presented by Leyla Kazim
Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

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