Publication of an application for registration pursuant to Article 6(2) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin

(2002/C 67/06)

This publication confers the right to object to the application pursuant to Article 7 of the abovementioned Regulation. Any objection to this application must be submitted via the competent authority in the Member State concerned within a time limit of six months from the date of this publication. The arguments for publication are set out below, in particular under 4.6, and are considered to justify the application within the meaning of Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92.

COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 2081/92

APPLICATION FOR REGISTRATION: ARTICLE 5

PDO ( ) PGI (x)

National application No: -

1. Responsible department in the Member State Name: Directorate for the Production and Utilisation of Orchard Products

Address: Akharnon St 2, GR-10176 Athens

Tel. (30-1) 529 12 74

Fax (30-1) 523 38 66.

2. Applicant group 2.1. Name: Agricultural Fruit and Vegetable Company of Kastoria (GEOK)

2.2. Address: Fotini, GR-52059 Kastoria

2.3. Composition: producers/processors (x) other ( )

With 610 apple-producer members (membership list 13225/9-11-79).

Recognised as a producer group as of 1981.

The group's precursors were the Agricultural Cooperatives of Tichio, Mavrohori and Polykarpi (Kastoria's three main apple-growing areas) established in 1925, 1926 and 1958 respectively. The company is a primary company with a popular base, and is one of the most important of its kind in Greece.

3. Type of product: 1.6.

4. Specification (Summary of requirements under Article 4(2))

4.1. Name: Milo Kastorias.

4.2. Description: Apple trees are perennial, deciduous trees belonging to the family Rosaceae and the sub-family Pomoideae. Its flowers are hermaphroditic and develop almost together with the leaves, in clumps of five to seven at a time.

The fruit, the apple itself, is fleshy and juicy with a slightly tart sweet taste, round, with crisp, whitish flesh. From the botanical standpoint the apple is a "false fruit" since the carpel is involved in its formation.

The designated area produces the red varieties Starking, Starkrimson, IDR Delicious, Red Chief and the yellow varieties Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Granny Smith.

Apple trees are cultivated for their fruit. The apples are harvested when they correspond with certain ripeness indicators - soluble ingredients (12,5 brix for red varieties, 14,5 for yellow), resistance of the flesh to pressure (7-8 kg), distribution of red colour (must be more than 80 % of coloured surface) and internal concentration of ethylene (1 ppm).

Apples are eaten mainly raw and to a lesser extent cooked in various ways (stewed, preserved, baked, in pies, in sauces, etc.). They are also used for the production of cider (whose preparation is mentioned by Plutarch in the first century AD), juice, wine, liqueur, brandy and vinegar, and in confectionery and the production of pectin. Apples are a good source of vitamins A and C, they contain large amounts of carbohydrates and they are an excellent source of dietary fibre.

4.3. Geographical area: In the prefecture of Kastoria apple trees are grown mainly in lake- and riverside localities, which are the GEOK's area of operations (districts of Kastoria, Vitsios, Agia Trias, Orestias, Agion Anargyron and Iona Dragoumi). The height above sea level of the cultivation zone ranges from 630 to 850 m.

The total area used for growing apples is 16500 stremmas (1 stremma = 1000 m2), or 5 % of farmland in the prefecture.

The soil of the said apple-growing area is alluvial and sedimentary, of light consistency, well draining and slightly acidic.

The climate is continental, with low temperatures in winter which fully satisfy the apple tree's great need for cold weather to break the period of dormancy. The summers are cool because of the geographical latitude, the height above sea level and the waters of the lakes and rivers, with large temperature differences between day and night, a factor that greatly favours the formation of plentiful pigmentation (anthocyanins) in the fruit. The mean annual rainfall is 602 mm (1991-1997).

4.4. Proof of origin: The Greek names for apple and apple tree - "milo" and "milia" (or "mileia" in poetry) - derive from the ancient Greek Aeolic and Doric dialects, and are Mediterranean in origin.

Apple trees have been known since prehistoric times in both natural and wild forms. Fossilised trees have been found dating back to 3000 BC.

Homer (eighth century BC) mentions the cultivation of apple trees both in Odyssey, VII, 115 ("apple trees with bright fruit") and XXIV, 340, and Iliad, X, 152. There are also mentions in Hesiod's Theogony (eighth century BC), line 215 ("the Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean"), Herodotus (fifth century BC), Aristophanes (The Clouds, line 978), Theophrastus (fourth century BC) and other writers of antiquity.

Famous in Greek mythology is the golden apple sent as a gift by Eris, goddess of rivalry and vengeance, to the nuptials of Thetis and Peleus, with the message "for the fairest". This was her revenge for being the only Olympian god not invited, and provoked a rivalry between the three most beautiful goddesses, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, which in turn led to the abduction of Helen and the Trojan war. (The original Greek for "apple of discord" is "μήλο της έριδος" or "apple of Eris".)

According to C. H. Chandler, professor of arboriculture at the University of California, apple trees have been cultivated in Greece since 600 BC.

In the Kastoria prefecture their cultivation goes back at least to the beginning of the 20th century, beginning in mountain villages. In the years between the wars (1930-1940) it spread and became established in the prefecture's lake- and riverside areas (corresponding to the districts of Kastoria, Aliakmona, Makedna, Vitsios, Agia Trias, Orestias, Agion Anargyron and Iona Dragoumi).

The GEOK is an officially recognised group of apple-producers which is legally obliged to keep cultivation, production and sales records for its members. So records exist for each producer of numbers of trees, area under trees and production quantity and quality.

The resultant top-quality produce is collected, conserved, sorted, packaged and standardised at the GEOK's modern cold storage and sorting facilities.

The competent inspection staff of the regional agricultural directorates monitor production, standardisation and distribution on the basis of ministerial decisions.

4.5. Method of production 4.5.1. Harvesting: Harvesting begins at the end of September, lasts a month and takes place in a festive atmosphere.

The ripeness criteria applied by the GEOK were defined by the Arboriculture Laboratory of the University of Thesssaloniki's Department of Agriculture after a series of experiments carried out in the GEOK's apple-growing zone, and are as follows:

A. Concentration of soluble constituents (red varieties 12,5 brix, yellow varieties 14,5 brix).

B. Resistance of the flesh to pressure 7-8 kg.

C. Local distribution of red colour ( > 80 % of the coloured area).

D. Internal concentration of ethylene (1 ppm).

This method is used to check the quality of the harvested product and physiological diseases or ones developed after picking during storage are largely avoided.

Producers pick the fruits by hand (one at a time), putting them into plastic containers from where they are transferred to wooden crates measuring 1,10 × 1,20 × 0,7 m (bins). These are loaded by hoists onto trucks, which transport them the same day to the GEOK's refrigerators, from where they are at once taken to the cold stores.

4.5.2. Preservation: The apples are collected, preserved, sorted, standardised and packaged at the GEOK's facility in Fotini, where its cold-stores and sorting equipment, the most modern of their kind in the Balkan area, are located.

The apples are stored and preserved in 16 cold-stores, four of which have a controlled atmosphere.

The apples are preserved from harvesting time until May/beginning of June of the following year.

The GEOK is the most organised agricultural enterprise in the prefecture of Kastoria, with considerable facilities and technical experience at its disposal.

However, under the action plan it has submitted as an apple producer association (whose implementation will be subsidised by the European Agricultural Fund), it will be modernising and adapting its infrastructure so as to provide its members with stable trading structures, training, agricultural information and environmentally friendlier cultivating methods.

One of the action plan's main elements is the acquisition of new equipment, which, in combination with its existing equipment, will perfect and modernise the collection, processing and storage of produce.

4.5.3. Standardisation - packaging - marketing: The only standardising and packaging unit in the prefecture of Kastoria is the GEOK's unit, which is the distribution centre for all the Kastoria's apple production for which PGI recognition is being sought.

During the preservation period, sorting and standardisation are carried out gradually by the ultra-modern electronic sorting equipment, whose capacity is 10 t/hour, which divides the apples into quality categories according to the individual weight of the apples and their colour (proportion of red colour 80 %).

All the types and sizes are packaged in plastic crates and cartons of various sizes according to the requirements and particularities of the domestic market and markets abroad:

- three-layer cartons (50 × 27 × 30 cm),

- five-layer, "tray pack" cartons (52 × 32 × 32 cm),

- cardboard two-layer trays (40 × 60 × 18 cm), with apples placed in two layers in a plastic holder.

Under the action plan submitted by the GEOK for EU funding, it is also planned to acquire a "micro-packaging" system more suited to the final marketing of this product.

Marking equipment will also be acquired to highlight the product's qualitative characteristics and origin. A retail outlet will also be created for Kastoria apples of guaranteed quality.

Approximately 20-30 % of the GEOK's apple production is exported to countries in Europe, such as Italy, Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands. Smaller quantities are exported to Israel, Albania and Russia.

4.6. Link: The product's characteristics (size, intense red colour, exceptional organoleptic characteristics - taste, scent and juicy flesh - due to the appropriate ratio between soluble solids and acids, and high flesh hardness - 7-8 kg - persisting at a natural rate of decline until the end of the trading period) are a result of soil and climate conditions in the area and of the cultivation methods applied.

The soil of the GEOK's apple-growing areas is a key element in tree growth and optimum accomplishment of the natural ripening cycle. It is alluvial and sedimentary, originating in the Grammo and Vitsio rock layers (mainly igneous); it is light in consistency, well-draining, slightly acidic and pathogen-free, with a high organic materials content (1,5-2,0 %).

The area's climate, which is mild continental (thanks to the lake waters), with cool summers due to altitude (the apple-growing areas are at 630 m), is conducive to a high concentrations of soluble solids and optimum sugar-acid ratios, resulting in excellent organoleptic characteristics (i.e. delicious taste and smell, a juicy and dense flesh texture) and a long life.

The wide variation in temperature between day and night, particularly in the ripening months of July, August and September, favours the formation of plentiful pigmentation (anthocyanins) in the fruit, whence the vivid redness and yellowness of the respective varieties.

The cultivation methods applied, which are the result of long experience and know-how, help produce well-proportioned, sizeable and homogenous fruit. These methods principally include suitable thinning at the right time, appropriate (mainly organic) fertilisation and compensatory irrigation in summer.

Apple festivals, dating back many years, are organised regularly, with the participation of folklore performers and cultural groups. These events, along with various customs involving apples (particularly at Christmas), organised educational outings to orchards for pupils of State schools (going back many years), various sayings that are the distillate of long experience and popular wisdom ("apples fall under their own trees", "apple tree, count your own apples", "an apple a day keeps the doctor away") - all these elements of local culture and tradition contribute both toward conservation of the environment and to a harmonious lifestyle for those living in the area.

4.7. Inspection body Name: Normarchiaki aftodiikissi Kastorias (Prefectural Government of Kastoria)

Address: Diikitirio (Town Hall)

M. Alexandrou

GR-52100 Kastoria

4.8. Labelling: It is obligatory for packaging to bear the words "Milo Kastorias" PGI and the information required under Article 4(7) of Presidential Decree No 81/93.

4.9. National requirements: The general provisions of Presidential Decree No 81/93 concerning the production process for PDO and PGI products are applicable.

EC No: EL/00128/2000.05.16.

Date of receipt of the full application: 17 July 2001.