Find Industry and Manufacturing expertise in Cyprus

Cyprus’ manufacturing sector has gradually declined with the growth of the country’s services sector and manufacturing now accounts for approximately 6.5% of the country’s GDP (2013). Manufacturing employs 9% of the labour force in Cyprus (2013). Cyprus is rated 39 out of 185 countries by the World Bank for ease of doing business, a ranking based on how conducive the regulatory environment is to the opening and operation of a local firm

The main industrial products manufactured in the country include pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, clothes, minerals, machinery and equipment.

Cypriot manufactured exports go mainly to the European Union, which constituted over 50% of the market. Exports to the Middle East make up around 15%. Manufacturing in the country is largely dominated by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), over 99% of which employ 250 persons or fewer, with many employing fewer than 10 workers. Due to this, many manufacturing firms choose to become members of trade associations which can effectively represent the interests of their respective sub-sectors. These trade associations include the Association of Beverage Manufacturers, the Association of Prefabricated Products of Concrete, and the Association of Biscuit, Chocolate, Snack and Sugar Confectionary Manufacturing.

The 2013 Global Competitiveness Report scores and ranks the sophistication of production processes around the world, where a low country score of 1 means “no sophistication and labour intensive” and a high score of 7 means production processes are the “world’s best and apply the most efficient  technologies”.  In this respect Cyprus ranks 58 out of 144 countries with a score of 3.8 for overall product process sophistication.

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism is the main body in charge of implementing government policy in matters of industry, trade and manufacturing. The administration of the Ministry oversees the general policy in the sector and directs and co-ordinates all the departments and services of the Ministry for its effective implementation.