Carrefour to buy 20 tonnes of Cyprus halloumi from Christis

The Carrefour supermarkets in Cyprus, operated by the Greek-French joint venture Carrefour Marinopoulos that bought out the Chris Cash and Carry chain two years ago, has bought 20 tonnes of halloumi from local dairy Christis and will place them in its local stores under its own label.

At a later stage Carrefour will export some of that halloumi to Greece and potentially to European and Arab markets where the multinational chain has a presence, gradually increasing its order from Christis.

The dairy’s export manager, Stefanos Aloneftis, said that he is not concerned with any conflict in overseas markets, as “we are selling directly to other distributors and Carrefour is targeting a different market.”

Aloneftis said that even the amounts of this initial test batch are insignificant, as Christis’ halloumi exports to the U.S. alone are estimated at some 120 tonnes a year.

Alain Goanvec, Carrefour’s General Manager for Cyprus, said that 90% of the supermarket chain’s food items were locally produced and that from 100 own-label items purchased locally in 2005, this number has already risen to 400. These include zivania, raisins and local traditional items, while Carrefour has also been exporting Cyprus potatoes to Greece.

The stores will stock own-label feta cheese from Greece as of next week.

 

— Euro-ready

 

Goanvec said that with the euro already the primary currency in at least nine countries where Carrefour has a presence, “we know what to do to avoid price hikes.”

“We were the first to announce in April that we would round-down the prices in Cyprus to the nearest Euro decimal,” he said.

However, Goanvec was critical of the labour-controlled shop working hours, saying that “we are not happy for our customers. We would like to stay open for longer hours.”