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In 2006, the European Community adopted a new regulation dealing with the geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs. Ecologic, along with ADAS and London Economics, carried out an evaluation of the scheme focusing on the development and effectiveness of Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) systems.

The PDO/PGI protection scheme, adopted in 2006, was designed to protect both consumers and producers by providing a certification scheme for the origin and method of production of agricultural products and foodstuffs. In order to register a name under the system, applicants are required to submit a product description, the method of production, the location of production, and some evidence demonstrating that the region of production is associated (in the case of PDO, exclusively) with some quality or reputation of the product. The goal of the legislation is to protect consumers by offering more information about products and to encourage the diversification of agricultural production, as well as encourage rural development via the promotion of quality food production.

The evaluation of the scheme was carried out by comparing the expected outputs of the measure with observed impacts in a set of case studies from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Sweden, and the UK. The project team compiled statistical data on the development of the PDO/PGI scheme over the evaluation period and conducted expert interviews with farmers, producers and retailers in order to elicit economic data on the effectiveness of the PDO/PGI scheme. Finally, policy recommendations were formulated.

Ecologic contributed to the project with the evaluation of two case studies, examining the PGI trademarks “Spreewälder Gurken” and the “Lübecker Marzipan”.