'Feta' cheese gets geographical protection

Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation

Authors

Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation

Date Issued

2003

Language

Type

News Item

Accessibility

Open Access

Metadata

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Citation

CTA. 2003. 'Feta' cheese gets geographical protection. Agritrade, August 2002. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Permanent link to cite or share this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/52708

External link to download this item: http://agritrade.cta.int/Back-issues/Agriculture-monthly-news-update/2002/August-2002

Abstract/Description

The European Commission has adopted a proposal to register Greek 'feta' cheese...

Notes

The European Commission has adopted a proposal to register Greek 'feta' cheese as a Protected Designation of Origin. This means that cheese designated as 'feta' must be produced in certain regions of Greece in ways respecting strict product specifications. Producers in other member states are given five years to change the name of their products or stop production. This follows nearly six years of dispute over the right of 'feta' cheese to be protected , which has gone all the way to the European Court of Justice. With other EU member states having a production interest in 'feta' cheese it has proved difficult to secure a qualified majority for designation of 'feta' as a Protected Designation of Origin. Comment: The EU's long term objective is to secure WTO protection of such designations of origin. What the case of 'feta' cheese illustrates is that the scope of this system is likely to be substantially expanded over the coming years. In considering this issue ACP governments will need not only to look at the products currently falling under protected designation in which they have a production interest, but also products which could well be brought within an extended scheme.