PDO, PGI, AOC … amendments and suppression of the symbols
11.05.2009
The European Union Regulation n° 510/2006 dated 20/03/2006 defined at the community level two different levels of geographic reference for the agricultural products and foodstuffs : the protected geographical indications (PGI) and the protected designations of origin (PDO).
PGI and PDO are « the name of a region, a specific place or, in exceptional cases, a country, used to describe an agricultural product or a foodstuff originating from that region, this specific place or this country » (Article 2 of the above-mentionned Regulation).
PDO differs from PGI in that it designates an agricultural product or a foodstuff « whose quality or characteristics are essentially or exclusively due to a particular geographical environment including the natural and human factors, and whose production, processing and preparation take place in the defined geographical area ». There is thus a very close link between the origin and the product quality.
The PGI applies to an agricultural product or a foodstuff « of which a specific quality, reputation or other characteristics can be attributed to this geographical origin, and whose production, processing and preparation takes place in the specific geographical area ».
The European Union Regulation n°1898/2006 dated 14/12/2006 definied the symbols designating the PGIs an PDOs. These symbols both have the same shape, the same colors and the same design and only differ by the legend appearing within thereof. As a matter of course, such a similarity was an important source of confusion for the consumer, not much up on the legal differences between a PGI and a PDO.
In order to improve the consumers’ comprehension as for these differences, the Commission of the European Communities introduced, in the European Union Regulation n°628/2008, a new symbol for PDO wherein the blue color is replaced by the red color, the symbol for PGI remaining unchanged.
It is thus mandatory since 01/05/2009 to affix this new symbol on packages of agricultural products and foodstuffs benefiting from the PDO.
However, the former symbol will only disappear from displays on 01/05/2010, the Regulation having foreseen a transient period in order not to economically prejudice the producers and operators concerned.
In France, it is worth noting that the Order n° 2008-356 dated 15 april 2008, published in the Official Journal of the French Republic of 17/04/2008, foresees the suppression of the obligation to affix the specific logo to appellations of controled origin (AOC) of cheeses.
