Packing House for Agricultural Products

The Department of Agriculture issues the packing house licence for agricultural products, to physical persons or legal entities, provided that the Department is satisfied that the packing house is equipped with the suitable areas and machinery/equipment, individually, as:

• appropriate area for the quartering of cars that transports the products in the packing house for aims of unloading and loading of products;
• separate area where the products will be placed up to the sorting and their packing, for (in what concerns) products which do not need cooling facilities;
• pre-cooling facilities for the placement of products that needs to be placed in pre cooling facilities;
• benches of sorting and packing;
• suitable area for storing packed products;
• pre-cooling facilities for the placement of packed products, where this is applied;
• appropriate area for the loading of packed products in cars or cars converted into refrigerators (refrigerator cars), depending on the case;
• suitable equipment for the processing of all the above and depending on the type of agricultural product for which a license is applied for operating a packing house (weighting machines, fork lift, machines for sorting inspection etc.).

The licence application or licence renewal for operation of packing house can be submitted either through the PSC Cyprus or you can contact directly the competent authority:

Plant Health and Marketing Standards of Agricultural Products Sector,
Department of Agriculture
Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment
1412 Nicosia, Cyprus
Tel.: +357 22408630, +357408626
Fax: + 357 22408679
E-mail: inspection@da.moa.gov.cy, pzachariades@da.moa.gov.cy
Website: http://www.moa.gov.cy/moa/da/da.nsf

1. On-site inspections are carried out in order to ensure that all the prerequisites, mentioned under “eligibility criteria” section are met.

Upon approval, the applicant needs to pay to the Plant Health and Marketing Standards of Agricultural Products Sector of the Department of Agriculture or Larnaca Port Entry Point or Limassol Port Entry Point or Pafos District office, the relevant fee:

• each issuing of yearly licence fee for operating a packing house for fresh vegetables products is €40,00;
• each issuing of yearly licence fee for operating a packing house for fresh fruits is €40,00;
• each issuing of yearly licence fee for operating a packing house for herbs is €40,00;
• each issuing of yearly licence fee for operating a packing house for potatoes is €50,00;

The minimum payable fee for a period of less than one year is € 40,00.

The renewal fee is the same as the licence fees mentioned above and should be paid prior the end of November each year.

Administrative Action Against a Competent Authority’s Decision

Any person may file an Administrative Action at the Administrative court against a decision, act or omission of any competent authority or body.

Pursuant to Article 146 of the Constitution, an Administrative Action may be lodged within 75 days from the date of the decision or act or omission or from the day when such decision or act or omission was notified to the applicant.

The Administrative Court acts as a cassation Court and not as a substantive Court. In other words, the Administrative Court may:
I. Dismiss the Administrative Action
II. Annul wholly or partially the contested decision or act
III. Compel the relevant authority or body to take a certain action

After a decision is annulled, the authority and/or public body must reverse things back to the state prior to when the concerned decision and/or act was executed and reexamine.

Appeal Information

An Appeal may be filed against the Administrative Court’s first-instance decision within a period of 42 days from the date such decision was given.

At the Supreme Court (Court of Appeal Section) hearing, the contested issue of the appeal remains the legality of the decision or act already adjudicated for. However, such revision of the legality of the decision or act is solely examined on the matters and the extent that the two parties have limited the reasons in the relevant notice of appeal.

The decision adopted by the Supreme Court is considered final in relation to the matter that has been judged.

• The Imposition of Quality Controls on Agricultural Products Law of 2002 (129 (I) / 2002)
• The Imposition of Quality Controls on Agricultural Products Regulations
  

The natural person or legal person to whom the licence of packing house for agricultural products has been issued is responsible for the accuracy of data and information submitted to the competent authority and is obliged to comply with the provisions of the Imposition of Quality Controls on Agricultural Products Law of 2002, as amended, and the relevant regulations that are published based on the above mentioned law.

Moreover, the inspection officers of the Department of Agriculture carry out checks on a regular basis in order to supervise the classification, treatment, sorting and packaging of agricultural products.