“Too many questions unanswered”: EU farmers worried about revision of GIs system

01 Apr 2022 --- The European Commission (EC) has issued a proposal to revise the EU’s Geographical Indications (GI) system for food. It would focus on improving GIs protection and controls, the possibility to include sustainability requirements for GIs, and speeding up applications.

However, the EC’s proposal has been flagged by the EU’s agri-food producers as leaving “too many questions” unanswered. A particular concern is the proposed transfer of competences to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

“From the producers point of view, the way the EC proposes to implement those potential changes, raises questions and serious concerns,” states the European agri-food coalition Copa-Cogeca.

“Certain elements are unclear and require further clarifications, while others like the further involvement of EUIPO in GIs management are simply extremely worrying,” it stresses.

“Shifting away competences from the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development [DG AGRI] to an agency specialized in intellectual property rights – and without the necessary knowledge of the specificities of the agricultural sector and nature of GIs – puts at risk this successful policy.”

Preserving European culinary heritage
The EC released its proposal for the revision of the EU’s GIs system in the framework of the Farm to Fork Strategy.

GIs are an EU policy that identifies where a particular food or beverage product has been produced – such as Italian Parmigiano Reggiano cheese or Dutch herring – in order to preserve the EU's culinary heritage.

These indications also play an important role for the regional development and especially of the rural communities to which they are attached, aiding also to preserve the culture and the various specific agricultural techniques and plant and animal varieties of those regions.

“The new proposal released today in the context of the Farm to Fork Strategy is supposed to go even further and also provide more space for sustainability aspects to be addressed, although this concept is already embedded in the GIs’ nature,” concedes Copa-Cogeca.

“Some of these concerns have already been echoed by the European Parliament and the Council. What made GIs a success is that it associates the quality of a product to the ‘savoir faire’ of a region and its producers. We need to keep this in mind if we want to make this successful policy even better.”

Latest update on food fraud
It is said that products with GIs are especially prone to food fraud because of their higher value. On average, the price of a GI product is 2.1 times the price of a comparable non-GI product, because it can be easily done by replacing a product’s labeling.

Earlier this week, Europol’s latest Opson IX report on food fraud activity across 77 countries worldwide revealed a total of 12,000 illicit food products seized with a retail value of approximately US$40 million.

Roughly 19 organized crime groups were disrupted, and 27,579 inspections were carried out. About 2 million liters of fake or sub-standard drinks and 2,000 tons of fraudulent fruit, vegetables and legumes were seized.

By Benjamin Ferrer