Northern Cyprus: Population wants domestic produce but high quantity of imports continues
The products that consumers’ prioritised were halloumi cheese, olive oil, honey and molasses. The…The products that consumers’ prioritised were halloumi cheese, olive oil, honey and molasses.
The Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry acknowledge the importance of supporting domestic products, figures show that for products such as cheese, rice, sugar and sunflower oil, Northern Cyprus continues to be dependent on foreign food products. In the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus just for the month of July, $1,450,000 worth of dehydrated foods were imported.
The results of the study show that more than a half of consumers support domestic produce and more then 80% consider that domestic produce needs to be supported, especially as the country continues to be dependent on food products produced abroad. 98% of respondents would support a campaign promoting domestic produce.
Consumers could pay more attention to purchasing domestically produced cheeses and other dairy products, as over 4 million US dollars of dairy products were imported in July.
According to the Import Statistics Report, for imports between January-July 2015, a total of $833,360,000 worth of imports were realised, of this $7,446,000 of imports were composed of fresh fruit.