Cyprus is urging the European Union to speed up the process granting full name protection to halloumi cheese, the east Mediterranean island nation's top culinary export.

Cyprus government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou told The Associated Press on Wednesday that authorities are pressing the European Commission to speed things up. An application, filed in 2015 amid talks to reunify ethnically split Cyprus, would limit use of the name in EU countries to halloumi made only on both sides of the divide. But Cyprus peace talks collapsed in 2017.

Cyprus recently lost the halloumi trademark in the U.K. due to what officials said was an administrative foul-up.