REINTRODUCTION OF AID TO MATURATION NO LEVELLING OF QUALITY

Consortium’s Requests to EU Commission

Reggio Emilia, 29th May 2009  -  The Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese Consortium requests the immediate reintroduction of product maturation aid “whose suspension by the European Commission – President Giuseppe Alai explains – represents not only a rise in costs for producers during a particularly critical period, but it also implies a risk of placing on the market younger cheese with sensory, organoleptic characteristics and nutritional values, which are different from the standards that have contributed to make it stand out with respect to other products as the “king of cheeses”, placing it also in competition with other generic products”.
“It is a lengthy maturation – continues Alai – that renders Parmigiano-Reggiano unique through the development of its distinctive quality elements: the Commission’s decision therefore leads to an unacceptable levelling between products that take three days to be made and others that take several months. This would be detrimental exclusively for those cheeses that require lengthy maturation periods before being offered to consumers”.
These forms of levelling of PDOs and PGIs are the reason for the Consortium’s disagreement with some elements of the Communication on the quality policy of agricultural products addressed by the Commission to European Parliament, European Council, European Economic and Social Committee and European Regional Committee. This has followed the publishing in October 2008 of the Green Paper that establishes the developments in quality agricultural policy for the coming years.
“If the Green Paper thus becomes a key element in the evolution of reference norms on PDO and PGI – explains the Consortium’s Director, Leo Bertozzi – the specific elements determining the quality of products must be taken into account. For Parmesan a key quality element is the lengthy maturation period (on average 24 months), which goes far beyond the minimum maturation time established by the production regulation (12 months). Indeed, it is only thanks to its maturation that its specific and distinctive characteristics of texture, aroma and flavour develop, therefore offering consumers a top quality cheese”. “Furthermore - Bertozzi continues – the Commission’s communication, which has a praiseworthy goal, should be completed since the proposal of combining PDO and PGI together is a simplification that would lead to a downgrading of Geographical Indications”.
Bertozzi maintains that “with the Green Paper and the resulting debate, we are loosing the opportunity of regulating the use and image of designations of origin (DPO) in food products – indication of characterizing feature - at a EU level as it happened in Italy".
“The Commission’s Communication – the Consortium's Director adds – has not mentioned the Protection Consortia which hold the product brand, enhance and protect it and, especially, it has not mentioned the possibility of giving these bodies the right to manage the amounts produced, which are one of the key elements, with the definition of minimum sales prices, for enhancing quality productions in the open European Union market”.
The Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese Consortium therefore believes that the EU Commission’s document should undergo a radical revision “because it risks meeting the requirements of generic and mass products, rather than the requirements of productions that have achieved leading positions in terms of quality through craftsmanship and a close tie to their area of origin”.