Troodos vine growers seek state aid over weather and disease damage

Kyperounta, Cyprus. Troodos vine growers appealed on Monday for state financial assistance to offset losses from extreme weather and plant disease, warning that vineyards in Pitsillia face an uncertain future.

Falling harvests and pressure on incomes

Meeting at a vineyard in Kyperounta, the growers identified mavro and xynisteri as the varieties worst affected. One grower said the two accounted for 85 per cent of the damage.

Theocharis Theocharous, representing Troodos growers, said production was declining sharply each year, while their incomes failed to rise despite government promises.

Panagrotikos district secretary for Limassol Evgenios Eleftheriou warned that conditions were deteriorating. He urged the state to provide producers with financial assistance, whether through EU funding or other resources.

Warning over wine and traditional products

Panicos Hambas, general secretary of the union of Cypriot farmers, described the situation as tragic. He warned that a reduced grape harvest would affect wine production alongside traditional products, including the grape sweets soutzouko and palouze, the distilled spirit zivania and delicatessen meats cured in wine.

Hambas said financial aid should reach both major wineries and smaller producers. He described the latter as “the heroes that protect the oxygen we breathe, because it is they who protect Troodos from fires, by planting vineyards”.

Appeal to the president

Hambas said the organisation had written to President Nikos Christodoulides and intended to seek answers through a follow-up later in the week.

Given the droughts that frequently affect Cyprus, he urged the president to put announcements made in Brussels into practice, adapting them to the island’s conditions.