PDO and PGI, stronger protection consortia with the new ministerial decree
The decree of the Ministry of Agriculture implementing EU Regulation 2024/1143, which had reformed the rules on GI products by introducing new competences for the Consortia, including on tourism and sustainability, has been approved
Green light for new rules strengthening the role of consortia for the protection of quality food products (PDO and PGI). The decree of the Ministry of Agriculture was launched, implementing EU regulation 2024/1143 that had reformed the rules on PDO and PGI products by introducing new competences for the protection consortia. These are very important measures for Italia, a pioneer country (the Grana Padano consortium was founded in 1954, while the EU regulation introducing PDO and PGI dates back to 1992) and a leader in designations of origin, in which protection consortia have played a decisive role in the development and dissemination of quality products on the markets.
The new regulations provide first of all for a strengthening of the powers of the consortia, which have been confirmed in their role as central subjects for the promotion, valorisation, supervision, and legal protection of trademarks, competences to which are now also added the productive management of the denomination and strengthened competences in the field of intellectual property, contrasting illicit uses, market monitoring, and online protection. In terms of protection, consortium levers are strengthened on the increasingly widespread use of PDO and PGI products as ingredients in other processed food products.
To these competences are added two new ones: enogastronomic tourism and sustainability. On the one hand, consortia will be able to act as promoters of tourism initiatives by enhancing the product, its history, its link with the environment and the added value expressed by local communities. On the other hand, they will be able to play the role of leader and promote business investments in sustainability.
The Masaf decree concerning PDO and PGI food products (for wine a second ad hoc measure will follow) has among its qualifying points the definition of criteria for the representation of the different production categories chain by chain. This is another important aspect because in the past it was precisely the disagreements over the weights to be assigned to the different categories (in olive oil, do olive growers or millers count more?) that often held back the development of consortium initiatives.
Lastly, the possibility of setting up a consortium representing several PDO and PGI brands even of different product categories but of the same territory is also important. This is a regulation that could also allow small local productions to be represented.
