Green light for the new rules that strengthen the role of consortia for the protection of quality agri-food products (DOP and PGI). The decree of the Ministry of Agriculture has been launched, implementing EU Regulation 2024/1143, which reformed the rules on DOP and PGI products, introducing new powers specifically for protection consortia. These are very important measures for Italy, a pioneering country (the Grana Padano consortium was founded in 1954, while the EU regulation introducing DOP and PGI dates back to 1992) and a leader in designations of origin, where protection consortia have played a decisive role in the development and market spread of quality products.
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The new rules primarily foresee a strengthening of the powers of the consortia, confirmed in their role as central entities for the promotion, enhancement, supervision, and legal protection of brands, to which are now added the productive management of the denomination and strengthened competencies in intellectual property, combating illicit uses, market monitoring, and online protection. In terms of protection, the consortia’s leverage is strengthened regarding the increasingly widespread use of DOP and PGI products as ingredients in other processed food products.
Two new competencies are then added to these: enogastronomic tourism and sustainability. Consortia, on the one hand, can promote tourism initiatives by enhancing the product, its history, its connection to the environment, and the added value expressed by local communities. On the other hand, they can act as leaders and promote business investments in sustainability.
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The Masaf decree concerning DOP and PGI food products (a second ad hoc provision will follow for wine) has among its qualifying points the definition of representation criteria for the different production categories, chain by chain. This is another important aspect because in the past, conflicts over the weights to be assigned to different categories (in olive oil, do olive growers or millers count more?) have often hindered the development of consortium initiatives.
Finally, also important is the possibility of establishing a consorzio that represents multiple DOP and PGI brands, even from different product categories but from the same territory. This rule will allow for the representation of small local productions as well.
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