in-cyprus 5 January 2021 - by Annie Charalambous
Wine consumption in Cyprus is twice as much as that produced with tourists helping out a lot in that respect, according to Ministry of Agriculture data.
Specifically, the estimated wine consumption in Cyprus between August 1, 2015 and July 31, 2016 was 185,097 hectolitres – 79,307 of which from locals.
At the same time, 89,005 hectolitres were consumed by nationals from EU countries and another 3,694 hectolitres from third countries.
In addition, 81,026 hectolitres of wine were produced by local wineries between August 1, 2016 and July 31, 2017, and 172,870 hectolitres were consumed.
At the same time, 85,331 hectolitres of wine were imported from EU member states and 3,936 hectolitres from third countries.
Between August 1, 2017 and July 31, 2018, a total of 189,000 hectolitres were consumed and 110,292 hectolitres produced in Cyprus. A total of 70,995 hectolitres were imported from the EU and 4,612 hectolitres from third countries.
In the meantime, the Ministry has offered the ‘Green Harvest’ in grapevines incentive with a budget of €1.6 million in a bid to boost the island’s wine sector.
Green Harvest is a crop thinning method used to decrease the crop yields and improve the flavour concentration of the remaining grape bunches.
In this process, unripe grapes are trimmed so that the nutrients reach the ripe bunches and increase their quality.
This form of crop thinning allows winemakers to create wine with the characteristics they want.
