Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the 'Promotion of local speciality agricultural products as a development instrument under the new CAP'
Date: 1998-07-01
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: agricultural product, common agricultural policy, designation of origin, product quality

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Promotion of local speciality
agricultural products as a development instrument under the new CAP’

(98/C 284/12)

On 29 January 1989 the Economic and Social Committee, acting under Rule 23(3) of its rules
of procedure, decided to draw up an opinion on the ‘Promotion of local speciality agricultural
products as a development instrument under the new CAP’.

The Section for Agriculture and Fisheries, which was responsible for preparing the Committee’s
work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 16 June 1998. The rapporteur was Mrs Santiago.

At its 356th plenary session (meeting of 1 July 1998), the Economic and Social Committee
unanimously adopted the following opinion.

1.

Introduction

1.1.
The Agriculture and Fisheries Section’s visit to
the Douro region in Portugal on 18 and 19 September
1997 impressed upon it the need to promote and publicize
local speciality agricultural products. Accordingly, the
Economic and Social Committee decided to draw up an
own-initiative opinion dealing with the promotion of
these products as a development instrument under the
new CAP.

1.2.
The increasing standardization of the character-
istics of many food products is both a consequence of
and an incentive for the marketing of a greater profusion
of products. However, it can also have an impact on
the number of products which have specific features
associated with their place of origin and whose particular
production methods and increasing guarantees of quality
are difficult to copy.

1.3. Original manufacturing methods are used to
make premium local products
from quality raw
materials. The appearance and specific taste of these
products make them more appealing than other similar
products, and are always associated with a particular
region.

boost to its promotion can make the production system
and job situation more stable, thereby helping to raise
the living standards of the local population and providing
valuable support for rural development, by means of
integrated local development policies.

2. General comments

2.1.
European agriculture not only has the task
of producing wholesome, quality food and non-food
products. It also plays a key role in land-use and
development, maintaining jobs, and giving a boost
local culture and traditions, natural
to rural areas,
resources, the environment and the beauty of the
countryside.

2.2.
The identity of European farming is rooted in an
equilibrium between people, production and the land,
its human dimension and cultural heritage.

Against a background of

2.3.
increasing market
liberalization, and as part of the new direction given to
the Common Agricultural Policy, there is a need to
diversify farm production so as to strike a better balance
between supply and demand.

1.4.
These products are often manufactured under
circumstances which are difficult or impossible to
replicate outside their place of origin, and unless these
specific circumstances and features are recognized and
protected, it will be difficult for them to remain available
on the market, since such recognition is vital to their
value added; this, in turn, is of benefit to all links in the
chain, particularly the farmers.

2.3.1.
The Commission estimates that present-day
production of quality local products constitutes a mere
10 % of European agricultural production and 20 % of
value added. If these figures could be increased, these
products could secure a significant market share and
provide the key to economic progress in less-favoured
rural areas. The new agricultural policy reform currently
under discussion should bear this in mind.

1.5. Once a product is recognized as a premium
product, it is easier for it to obtain value added. This

Europe does produce limited amounts of agricul-
2.4.
tural products whose place of origin and specific

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production methods distinguish them from other similar
products on the market; these premium products favour
quality over mass production.

producers via cooperatives and similar organizations
could make a major contribution to this.

2.4.1.
If consumer demand for quality products is to
be increased, it will be necessary for these products
to be safe, have a characteristic taste, texture and
appearance of their own, keep their taste and other
characteristics to a high degree, be subject to reliable
quality control and be different to other products of the
same type.

2.4.2.
Since the production processes of quality local
products use traditional techniques and recipes, they do
not need additional precautions or treatment, nor do
to the
they employ methods or products harmful
environment. This helps to boost consumer confidence
in them.

2.5.
The promotion and development of these prod-
ucts may prove an important asset for rural areas,
particularly less-favoured and peripheral areas and
upland areas (from where 80 % of these products
originate). The resulting cultural boost can be a
determining factor in sustainable rural development, the
stabilization of local populations and job creation.

Despite the fact that quality products may
2.5.1.
benefit from technological
innovations and labour-
saving methods, production is labour-intensive because
of the precise nature of the work and the processes that
have to be used.

2.6.3. Over and above the value derived from the
very fact that product names (be they geographical or
traditional) are protected, there is the further advantage
that production is covered by a set of rules which
producers themselves have helped to put together, thus
voluntarily undertaking to comply with them. This helps
all members of the production and distribution chain
to work together, and to apply effective inter-trade
monitoring.

2.6.4.
The positive effects of these Community instru-
ments have already become clear, in terms of improve-
ments in some manufacturing conditions, support from
an increasing number of producers, compliance with
natural manufacturing conditions, respect
for the
environment, and higher incomes for producers.

2.6.5.
Improvements have also been apparent in
marketing, especially in the care put into the packaging
and presentation of products, making them more appeal-
ing to the consumer, with the result that an increasing
share of the market is being won over.

2.6.6. One significant aspect is the growing number
of commercial outlets interested in these products,
especially supermarkets, where great pains are taken to
make an attractive display of such products;
this
highlights the quality policy pursued by some of these
outlets.

2.5.2. Often this can mean that more people have to
be employed in the manufacture of these products,
which in turn means greater value added.

2.7.
In 1992 the European Community set up schemes
for promoting and protecting geographical designations
(PDO and PGI) and traditional specialities (TSG).

2.6.
Two Community legal instruments have proved
valuable in promoting premium agricultural production.
These are Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 on the protec-
tion of geographical indications and designations of
origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs and
Regulation (EEC) No 2082/92 on certificates of specific
character for agricultural products and foodstuffs.

2.6.1.
For wine, quality criteria and designations of
origin are set out in a separate Council Regulation
— (EEC) No 823/87 — which lays down special
provisions relating to quality wines produced in specified
regions.

2.7.1. What is a PDO?

Protected designation of origin (PDO) is the
2.7.1.1.
label given to a product produced, processed and
prepared in a defined geographical area, using recognized
and proven know-how.

2.7.1.2.
In the interests of consumers, the PDO may
be replaced by equivalent traditional labels (AOC in
French, DOC in Italian) or by the Spanish ‘denominacio´n
de origen’, and the Portuguese ‘denominaça˜o de origem
controlada’.

2.7.2. What is a PGI?

2.6.2.
Although many products have already been
granted a designation of origin and geographical indi-
cation, they cannot become competitive without supply
consolidation, technological modernization and suitable
marketing techniques. Regional development projects
should cater for these aspects. Cooperation between

Protected geographical

indication (PGI)
2.7.2.1.
means that
there is a link with the geographical
environment in at least one of the stages of production,
processing or preparation. In this case the reference to
PGI can be on the packaging.

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2.7.3. What is a TSG?

A traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG)
2.7.3.1.
does not refer to the origin, but is designed to highlight
a product’s traditional composition or production
method.

Consumers’ growing preference for high-quality
2.8.
foodstuffs brings a need to publicize the existence of
these products adequately; in many cases they are only
known about and appreciated by small groups of people.

2.8.1.
Since certain aspects of the CAP may make it
difficult for some of these products to survive and
penetrate the market, there is a need for promotional and
publicity campaigns within and outside the Community;
campaigns of this type could benefit from Community
funds available for this purpose, by using appropriate
stock-taking techniques and raising public awareness of
production processes. The aim would be to generate
consumer interest in these products and encourage
consumers to purchase them more frequently.

3. A case in point: the port-wine region

3.1.
There are undoubtedly many examples of local
speciality products throughout the European Union:
witness the high number of products already registered
as such.

3.1.1.
The broad aim of this opinion is to laud the
virtues of local speciality products in general. However,
in this section we shall confine our comments to port
wine and the area in which it is produced, the Douro
region.

3.2.
The Douro region, with the particular way it
manages its vineyards to produce a wine of world-wide
renown, was the first ‘registered designation of origin’
in the world (the designation dates from the second half
of the 18th century). The area is a textbook example of
how the ingenuity, ability and hard work of a local
population can transform an undeveloped rural region
into a premium production area.

3.3.
The officially demarcated region of the Douro
has a typically Mediterranean climate with hot, dry
summers and relatively low annual rainfall; it is no more
than a narrow strip of land running along the Douro
valley, upstream from Barqueiros to the Spanish border.

3.4. Here, a very special set of features have developed
in the area around the Douro river, upstream from
Armamar and in the sheltered valleys along the river-
banks; the planting of vines in the schistous soil of
hillsides which, until then, were nothing more than
scrubland, was begun in the 17th century. The structure
of stepped terraces, designed to shore up the earth,
reflects intense human activity which has continued in
the way the system has been used, and has forged unique
rural landscape of great beauty, thus establishing a very
close relationship between product quality and the
beauty of the landscape.

3.5.
In spite of the major technological advances
which have taken place since the 18th century, the
processes employed in producing the wine have allowed
a balance to be maintained between farming and the
environment.

The narrow terraces only allow the use of
3.6.
traditional, highly labour-intensive techniques. The
optimum use made of exposure to the sun and the
combined effect of soil quality and solar radiation enable
these vineyards to produce the generous, high quality
port wines that they do.

3.7. One element which has changed is that the layout
of the terraces has been adapted to the need for
mechanized tillage, creating pathways at the ends of the
terraces which the equipment can use without, however,
visibly altering the landscape.

3.8.
In contrast to the vine-clad hillsides, there are
also ‘withered’ terraces abandoned after the vines were
devastated by phylloxera. These terraces are now
overgrown or, in places, have been used for recent forest
landscaping projects.

Secondary to the vineyards, semi-intensive horti-
3.9.
cultural and fruit-growing businesses are being
developed in the region. These have a considerable
impact on the traditional farm economy, although they
only take up small areas of land. This type of farming,
in sheltered valleys, is complementary to the vineyards
and vital for maintaining a balanced livelihood.

The specific features of the port wine region
3.10.
were neatly described by the American geographer, Dan
Stanislawski, in 1970, as follows:

‘Port Wine is a great wine because it is the product
of long experimentation, meticulous attention to
details, and strict controls; and no Portuguese
vineyardist would doubt that the environment of
the Douro valley, its place of origin, has played an
important part in its ultimate character. It is an
aristocrat among the highly elaborated agricultural
products of the world: no grape used in it has not
been subjected to rigorous inquiry into its birth and
upbringing, its current circumstances, companions,
the
habits and appearance. Up to that point
assumption is made that place of birth and
subsequent care are a sine qua non; but as
everyone knows, there are well-born, well-schooled
mediocrities within any select group, and objective
tests must be made to eliminate all but those of
proven excellence. Such tests are made by tasters,
experienced judges uninformed as to the birthplace
or antecedents of the objects of their appraisal.
They must pass on all wines; and normally they
accept only about one-third of the production of

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the zone. The other two-thirds is sold as ordinary
table wine or made into brandy’ (1).

training so as to help maintain or increase production
flows.

3.11.
Living conditions of the Douro region popu-
lation and their dependence on the wine-producing
system

3.11.1. Despite the fact that this is a region where the
environment is not very propitious to farming, the types
of farming employed allow a population density of
57 inhabitants per square kilometre. Most farms are
small; 8 000 wine growers produce between five and
15 hectolitres, 15 000 produce up to 25 hectolitres and
10 000 produce more than 25 hectolitres. The area has
no mineral resources, nor is there any industrial activity
of note. Wine thus constitutes the main source of income
for the local population, and the value added from the
quality product which is port wine is of unquestionable
importance for the region’s income.

3.11.2.
Thus, in this difficult region, the local popu-
lation has managed to establish a farming system which
does not harm the environment but actually protects it,
creating a humanized landscape with such special
features that it has been proposed that it be classified
a world heritage site, as it is a cultural
landscape
representing the combined work of nature and man.

4. Conclusions

4.1.
Local speciality products have, in some regions,
contributed to the well-being of local populations,
sustainable rural development and the promotion of
rural tourism. Most importantly, they have encouraged
young people to remain in rural areas, playing a concrete
part in the preservation of cultural values.

4.1.1.
this process could
be made more widespread, by improving vocational

It would be helpful

if

(1) This last statement was true thirty years ago. Technical
progress and innovation have meant that a large part of
the must not used for port wine is nowadays used in the
production of high quality table wines.

Brussels, 1 July 1998.

4.2.
It has already been noted that 80 % of quality
local products come from less-favoured upland areas.
This can be seen, in a rather bizarre sociological way,
as an act of historical and geographical revenge by
nature.

4.3.
There are of course further examples of this
phenomenon in other countries of the European Union,
as can be seen from the high number of products
registered under the PDO, PGI and TSG labels.

4.4.
As early as 1989, in its opinion on the future of
rural society, the Committee stressed that ‘a comprehen-
sive quality policy is needed’ and that ‘in most less-
favoured regions quality products have a tradition that
must be maintained and developed’ (2).

4.5.
In this own-initiative opinion drawn up against
the background of a new CAP, when Agenda 2000
promises another period of great change for European
farmers, the Committee calls on the Commission to put
into practice effective measures and methods to promote
quality local products which are an integral part of the
Community’s historical and cultural heritage. Demand
for premium products will only increase if consumers
can be sure that they are safe and of high quality.

4.6.
These measures must include steadfast moves to
defend local speciality products in GATT and WTO
negotiations, as was the case in the 1994 Marrakesh
Agreements (Articles 23 and 24).

4.7.
Use of designations of origin for product imi-
tations made outside the official place of origin, such as
port, chianti, champagne, parmesan and many others
must not be allowed. International rules on intellectual
property must be used to prevent
third countries
appropriating designations of origin or marketing desig-
nated products. No country, region or product within
or even outside the European Union has the right to
usurp something which has been built up at great effort
by manufacturers of quality local products.

(2) OJ C 298, 27.11.1989, p. 32.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Tom JENKINS