China-EU Start Cooperation on GI Products Protection and Administration

China and the European Union have launched a cooperative program on ten protected Geographical Indication products on each side. It's intended to ensure product quality, highlight brand identity, and preserve cultural traditions. Our reporter Yingying has the details.

China and EU has just started a "10 plus 10" trial project on geographical indications administrative cooperation. Under the pilot program, ten celebrated European product names will very soon be registered in the Chinese Geographical Indication register. At the same time, ten Chinese product names will soon be protected in the EU Geographical Indication register.

Geographical Indications, or GIs, are forms of identification which identify a product as originating in a region or locality in a particular country.

GI protection dates back in Europe in the 1970s. Francis Fay, directorate general for Agriculture and Rural Development of European Commission, says the system benefits both consumers and producers in Europe.

"Consumers get guarantee of origin and guarantee of quality and tradition of the product. For the producer, we have IPO protection, or international intellectual property protection, which insures that it is not possible for a downstream operator, such as a retailer, to switch to cheap supplies, use cheaper ingredients, or use the name on cheaper products and get benefits from the consumer without the original products."

Francis Fay says that the value added for the GIs in agricultural products is between 55-100%, which means producers are getting an average of half as much or twice as much as producers of commodity products.

He also points out that the GI protection system promotes rural development at the same time.

"Firstly, the economic; the registered name becomes a link to all that value added to a particular zone, particularly to producers of the products. Secondly, the environmental; many of these products are produced in a traditional authentic way with environmental friendly technologies and methods of production. And finally the social; first is the employment, very often using traditional technologically authentic productions, which are quite labor intensive. And finally there is cultural heritage in the tradition, the rural tradition. Only products which are made in accordance with these methods can own the name of using GI."

Zhang Mengfei, Deputy Director from China's Ministry of Agriculture, says GI administrative cooperation between China and EU is a starting point of exploring mutual recognition of each others' GI products.

"Chinese GI protection is at the initial stage, while the EU has been doing it for many years. We hope to strengthen cooperation with the EU through this project, and then to know more about the GI systems in the EU, as well as our products abroad."

The first GI protection regulation in China started at the end of last century, while EU started its agricultural product and food staff registers in 1992. It is said Chinese GI products include Longjing Tea and Shaanxi Apples, while the ten EU GI products include Prosciutto di Parma and Roquefort.

For CRI, this is Wei Tong.