Publication of the communication of an approved standard amendment to a product specification of a geographical indication in accordance with Article 5(4) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/27
Date: 2025-07-09
Institutions: Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission
Subjects: Extremadura, Spain, consumer information, designation of origin, fresh fruit, labelling, product designation, quality control of agricultural products, stone fruit




C_202503572EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/3572


9.7.2025






Publication of the communication of an approved standard amendment to a product specification of a geographical indication in accordance with Article 5(4) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/27 (1)

(C/2025/3572)

COMMUNICATION OF APPROVAL OF A STANDARD AMENDMENT

(Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143)



                     ‘Cereza del Jerte’
                  


EU No: PDO-ES-0233-AM01 – 14.4.2025
                  

1.   Name of product


               ‘Cereza del Jerte’
            
2.   Geographical indication type







☒


Protected designation of origin (PDO)










☐


Protected geographical indication (PGI)










☐


Geographical indication (GI)




3.   Sector







☒


Agricultural products










☐


Wines










☐


Spirit drinks




4.   Country to which the geographical area belongs

Spain
5.   Member State authority communicating the standard amendment

Consejería de Agricultura, Desarrollo Rural, Población y Territorio de la Junta de Extremadura [Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development, Population and Territory of the Government of the Autonomous Community of Extremadura], Dirección General de Agricultura y Ganadería [Directorate-General for Crop and Livestock Farming]
6.   Qualification as a standard amendment as defined in Article 24(4) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143

The amendment application can be classified as standard within the meaning of Article 24(4) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143.
7.   Description of the approved standard amendment(s)

1.   Inclusion of new cherry varieties

Three new non-indigenous cherry varieties (‘Burlat’, ‘Lapins’ and ‘Van’) have been added to the product specification because of climate changes in the Valle del Jerte over the last few decades and because producers of this PDO need to lengthen the season. This change affects Sections B, E and F of the product specification and Section 3.2 of the single document.
The amendment affects the single document.
2.   Amendment relating to the Regulatory Board’s logo

The logos used to distinguish the protected product have been replaced. This affects only Section H of the product specification and Section 3.7 of the single document.
The amendment affects the single document.
3.   Amendment relating to the inspection body

Some specific details have been updated in Section G (Inspection body).
The amendment does not affect the single document.
SINGLE DOCUMENT


                     ‘Cereza del Jerte’
                  


EU No: PDO-ES-0233-AM01 – 14.4.2025
                  


PDO (X) PGI ( )

1.   Name(s) (of PDO or PGI)


               ‘Cereza del Jerte’
            
2.   Member State or Third Country

Spain
3.   Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff
3.1.   Combined Nomenclature code







—


08 – EDIBLE FRUIT AND NUTS; PEEL OF CITRUS FRUITS OR MELONS

                        0809  – Apricots, cherries, peaches (including nectarines), plums and sloes, fresh

                        0809 29  – Other




3.2.   Description of the product to which the name in (1) applies

The protected designation of origin ‘Cereza del Jerte’ applies exclusively to table cherries, to be consumed fresh, of the following local varieties of the species Prunus avium L.: ‘Navalinda’, ‘Ambrunés’, ‘Pico Limón Negro’, ‘Pico Negro’ and ‘Pico Colorado’; as well as to the non-indigenous varieties ‘Van’, ‘Lapins’ and ‘Burlat’.
The cherry varieties covered by the protected designation of origin are of the following types:






—


Bigarreau cherries (‘Picotas’): the ‘Ambrunés’, ‘Pico Negro’, ‘Pico Colorado’ and ‘Pico Limón Negro’ varieties. A portion of the production belongs to the group of bigarreau cherry varieties; these are cherries whose basic difference is that they separate naturally from the stem when they are picked.










—


Stemmed cherries: ‘Navalinda’, ‘Van’, ‘Lapins’ and ‘Burlat’.




As regards the product’s characteristics, the fruit is reddish in colour, the cherries being predominantly wine-red or purple. Depending on the variety, their flesh, which is firm and crisp, varies from red to yellowish or cream-coloured, and their juice from red to colourless. The fruit may be kidney-shaped, flat-ended, rounded or elongated in form. Depending on the variety, the stone may be small to large or very large, and spherical or elongated in shape.
The following table summarises the main requirements as regards sugar content (measured in degrees Brix), form, minimum size and pH.













VARIETY


Sugar content (measured in °Bx)


Form


Minimum size


pH




Minimum


Maximum


Average


Minimum


Maximum


Average




Navalinda


12 


21,60 


14 


Flat-ended


21  mm


3,80 


4,70 


4,25 




Ambrunés


14 


25,80 


20 


Flat-ended


21  mm


3,65 


4,85 


4,25 




Pico
Colorado


13,90 


26,40 


21 


Elongated


21  mm


3,80 


4,70 


4,25 




Pico
Negro


11,80 


25,60 


19 


Elongated


21  mm


3,80 


4,90 


4,35 




Pico Limón Negro


15,40 


26,80 


20 


Elongated


21  mm


3,80 


4,70 


4,25 




Van


19,33 


21,50 


20,42 


Kidney-shaped


21  mm


3,68 


4,05 


3,86 




Lapins


17,27 


18,23 


17,75 


Flat-ended


21  mm


3,67 


4,35 


4,01 




Burlat


13,73 


17,20 


15,47 


Flat-ended


21  mm


3,83 


4,05 


3,94 




Cherries protected by the PDO ‘Cereza del Jerte’ will be of the ‘Extra’ class only, as defined in the marketing standard for cherries adopted in Commission Regulation (EC) No 214/2004 (2).
3.3.   Feed (for products of animal origin only) and raw materials (for processed products only)

The product is grown in the defined area.
3.4.   Specific steps in production that must take place in the identified geographical area

All steps in production must take place in the defined geographical area: planting and cultivation, predominantly on small terraced holdings with steep slopes on which mechanisation is difficult, field work (ploughing, fertilising, pruning) and harvesting by hand.
3.5.   Specific rules concerning slicing, grating, packaging, etc. of the product the registered name refers to

Packaging and preparation for sale must be such as to ensure that the product is fully protected. Packaging materials must be carefully selected to prevent any deterioration of the product. The contents of each package must be uniform as regards their origin, variety, quality and size and the visible part must be representative of the contents.
The cherries protected by the PDO ‘Cereza del Jerte’ must be packaged in the defined geographical area. This is considered necessary to safeguard the quality and ensure traceability and control throughout the certification process.
3.6.   Specific rules concerning labelling of the product the registered name refers to

The name of the protected designation of origin must be prominently displayed on the packaging, as well as the proprietary markings and the information generally required by the applicable legislation.
The Regulatory Board has two versions of the logo. They are used as described below:
the ‘Cereza del Jerte’ logo. This logo, shown below, may be used for both stemmed cherries and bigarreau cherries:





the ‘Picota del Jerte’ logo. This logo, shown below, may be used only for bigarreau cherries, so as not to confuse the consumer:





The packaging in which the cherries are placed on the market must bear the numbered secondary label or identification code issued by the Regulatory Board.
4.   Concise definition of the geographical area
The production zone is located in the northern districts of the Province of Cáceres. This area comprises the territory of the following municipalities, grouped by district:






—


DISTRICT OF THE VALLE DEL JERTE: Barrado, Cabezuela del Valle, Cabrero, Casas del Castañar, El Torno, Jerte, Navaconcejo, Piornal, Rebollar, Tornavacas and Valdastillas.










—


DISTRICT OF LA VERA: Aldeanueva de la Vera, Arroyomolinos de la Vera, Cuacos de Yuste, Garganta la Olla, Gargüera, Guijo de Santa Bárbara, Jaraíz de la Vera, Pasarón de la Vera and Torremenga.










—


DISTRICT OF EL AMBROZ: Cabezabellosa, Casas del Monte, Gargantilla, Hervás, Jarilla and Segura de Toro.




The strong link between quality, the mountain location of the holdings and the type of production means that the following land and holdings not located in the mountain farming area are excluded from the defined geographical area:






—


agricultural holdings in the district of La Vera that are less than 500 m above sea level,










—


agricultural holdings in the district of the Valle del Ambroz that are less than 600 m above sea level.




The product is packed and prepared for the market within the production area.
5.   Link with the geographical area
5.1.   Specificity of the geographical area

Historical link
The name ‘Jerte’ or ‘Valle del Jerte’ has a close link with cherries, a large number of consumers in Spain almost automatically associating the place with cherries as a product, or vice versa. The area is therefore well known for the excellence of its cherries and in particular of its ‘Picotas’ (bigarreau cherries).
Legend has it that the cherry tree was introduced by the Arabs and that, after the Reconquest, the new settlers found that it was well suited to the land. Not until the 14th century, however, is there reliable evidence of its existence.
On 2 June 1352 a party of the king’s emissaries stopped to spend the night in one of the villages in the area. The knights ate trout and cherries there, which shows that already at that time the cherry was a choice product of sufficient quality to offer to such distinguished travellers.
In the following centuries, cherry-growing survived and prospered. The famous Spanish doctor Luis de Toro refers to the cherries of the Jerte in the 16th century and singles them out for their size, colour and flavour.
It was in the 18th century, when the chestnut groves were ravaged by ink disease, that the cherry started to become a genuine economic alternative. At the end of that century and throughout the 19th, cherry orchards spread in the Valle del Jerte and the two neighbouring valleys.
In the early 1800s, writers were already maintaining that the best thing about the area ‘… is its cherries, which accordingly are very much appreciated at Court…’ Throughout the century, cherry trees spread to all villages, so that at the dawn of the 20th century the area was well known for ‘its delicious cherries’.
Natural link
A large number of varieties have traditionally been grown in the Valle del Jerte, some traditional and indigenous and others non-indigenous.
The four bigarreau cherry varieties and the ‘Navalinda’ variety are indigenous, coming either from the Valle del Jerte or from the neighbouring valleys of the Ambroz and La Vera. They are virtually exclusive to this region, since attempts to introduce them elsewhere have so far had little success.
Various authors state that the presence of stemless cherry varieties in the Valle del Jerte is the result of a long process of acclimatisation and semi-induced selection from different stocks of Prunus avium L., an indigenous forest species present in these mountain valleys since ancient times.
Combined with the improvements and clonal selection carried out by the inhabitants of the Jerte, environmental factors such as high humidity (even in summer), the breezes in the valley, its orientation, average annual sunshine, altitude, the microclimate and the acidity of the soil have done the rest.
The ‘Burlat’ and ‘Van’ varieties were introduced to the Valle del Jerte in the 1960s, while the ‘Lapins’ variety was introduced in the 1980s. Recent research has shown that the fruit produced by non-indigenous varieties grown in the Valle del Jerte, specifically the ‘Lapins’ variety, have both organoleptic and bioactive characteristics which differentiate them from fruit of the same variety produced by cherry trees located in production areas elsewhere in Spain.
The property structure and the conditions resulting from the difficult topography form a landscaped area of small, sometimes tiny, terraces supported by stone walls, which has to be worked largely without recourse to mechanisation.
Farmers in the Valle del Jerte have developed traditional skills and specific technical expertise in order to grow cherries by hand. The laborious individual attention that they receive increases the value of the cherries, which are cultivated and harvested with great dedication and care.
The product’s characteristics are therefore determined by the use of specific plant material, adapted and acclimatised to the environmental conditions typical of the Jerte basin and the neighbouring valleys, but also by the special features of a system of production where cherry growing is tied to farming traditions based on smallholdings and the family organisation of labour. The farms, generally situated on terraced plots on steeply sloping hillsides where mechanisation is difficult, make it possible to balance the low yields obtained with better quality.
5.2.   Specificity of the product

The protected designation of origin ‘Cereza del Jerte’ applies exclusively to table cherries, to be consumed fresh, of the following varieties of the species Prunus avium L.: ‘Navalinda’, ‘Ambrunés’, ‘Pico Limón Negro’, ‘Pico Negro’, ‘Pico Colorado’, ‘Burlat’, ‘Van’ and ‘Lapins’.
The fruit has a reddish external colouring, its intensity varying according to the variety. The cherries are predominantly wine-red or purple because of the preponderance of bigarreau cherries in the local harvest, and particularly of the Ambrunés variety (‘the queen of cherries’).
The basic difference of bigarreau cherries is that they separate naturally from the stem when they are picked, without this reducing their quality, making them less resistant to handling or reducing their shelf life. The following varieties belong to this group: ‘Ambrunés’, ‘Pico Negro’, ‘Pico Limón Negro’ and ‘Pico Colorado’.
The fruit may be kidney-shaped, flat-ended, rounded or elongated in form.
The flesh is firm and crisp and, depending on the variety, varies from red to yellowish or cream-coloured, and their juice from red to colourless. The colour of the flesh and juice is generally stable, especially the colour of the juice.
The stone is one of the most stable of the cherries’ characteristics, the size ranging from small (‘Van’) to large (‘Navalinda’ and ‘Ambrunés’), while the form is spherical (‘Ambrunés’ and ‘Van’), intermediate (‘Pico Colorado’, ‘Burlat’ and ‘Lapins’) or elongated (‘Pico Limón Negro’).
The stone/fruit ratio ranges from medium (‘Pico Colorado’, ‘Burlat’ and ‘Lapins’) to large and very large (‘Pico Limón Negro’, ‘Navalinda’, ‘Ambrunés’ and ‘Van’).
The stem shows significant variations in length and thickness:






—


length: short (‘Van’, ‘Lapins’ and ‘Burlat’), medium (‘Ambrunés’ and ‘Navalinda’) and long (‘Pico Negro’ and ‘Pico Colorado’).










—


thickness: fine (‘Pico Negro’ and ‘Pico Colorado’), medium (‘Ambrunés’, ‘Navalinda’, ‘Burlat’ and ‘Lapins’) and thick (‘Van’).




As regards the organoleptic characteristics, the average sugar content is higher than that usually found, with a refractive index that at optimum ripeness varies between 12 g and 24 g per 100 g fresh weight, depending on the variety.
Cherries protected by the PDO ‘Cereza del Jerte’ will be of the ‘Extra’ class only, as defined in the marketing standard for cherries adopted in Regulation (EC) No 214/2004.
5.3.   Causal link between the geographical area and the quality or characteristics of the product (for PDO) or a specific quality, the reputation or other characteristic of the product (for PGI)

The ‘Navalinda’, ‘Ambrunés’, ‘Pico Limón Negro’, ‘Pico Negro’ and ‘Pico Colorado’ varieties are virtually exclusive to this region, since attempts to introduce them elsewhere have so far had little success, as they do not flourish when the soil conditions, altitude, hours of sunshine, humidity and wind regime are not right.
The presence of stemless cherry varieties in the Jerte is the result of a long process of acclimatisation and semi-induced selection from Prunus avium L., an indigenous forest species present in these mountain valleys since ancient times.
The non-indigenous varieties were introduced from the 1960s from various improvement programmes, becoming fully adapted as a result of the unique soil and climate conditions of the Valle del Jerte and the traditional know-how of the area’s producers.
Along with the improvements and clonal selection carried out by the inhabitants of the Jerte, environmental factors promoting the adaptation of those varieties should thus also be mentioned, such as:






—


the high humidity, even in the summer months,










—


the breezes in the valley, its orientation, average annual sunshine, altitude, the microclimate and the healthy acidity of the soil, which complete the picture,










—


orography: the crop is grown from the floor of the three valleys up to altitudes above 1 200 m. The land between 600 m and 1 200 m is the most suitable for growing the bigarreau varieties, which, together with the other varieties grown, attain ripeness over a period running from the end of April until the beginning of August,










—


the area’s soils tend to have a loose, coarse texture, usually being sandy loam. External drainage is generally good. The soil is always acidic because of the material from which it originates, with a pH value normally between 5 and 5,5. These general characteristics of the soil are ideal for growing the main rootstock (Prunus avium or wild cherry) and the local cherry varieties,










—


climate: the characteristics of the three valleys included within the defined area are the result of their narrowness and depth, their orientation and their opening to the south. Variations in altitude and a fragmented terrain produce an uneven distribution of sunshine and differences in temperature between the summits and the alluvial valley bottoms, temperature differences sometimes being extreme. These differences in the climate cause differences in the length of the growing season and the flowering/ripening periods which, as already stated, are spread out over time, leading to very significant differences in the date of the harvest. Cherries of the same variety can ripen more than 40 days apart.




As regards humidity, the monthly and annual values and the distribution of rainfall show the area to have a humid Mediterranean climate with a short and significant dry summer period as a result of the scarcity of rain in the hot months of July and August, in which there is practically no rainfall.
Despite the annual average temperature pointing to a generally hot climate, there are large differences in temperature from season to season. The variation in temperature is proof of the harshness of the climate.
To conclude, all the area’s specific orographical, soil, climate and hydrological characteristics described above are essential for producing such an exclusive, genuine product as ‘Cereza del Jerte’. If one of these factors should cease to exist, it would be impossible to produce this product.

Publication reference of the specification


https://www.juntaex.es/documents/77055/621148/Pliego+DOP+Cereza+del+Jerte_consolidado+200924.pdf



(1)  Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/27 of 30 October 2024 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 of the European Parliament and of the Council with rules concerning the registration and the protection of geographical indications, traditional specialities guaranteed and optional quality terms and repealing Delegated Regulation (EU) No 664/2014 (OJ L, 2025/27, 15.1.2025, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2025/27/oj).

(2)  
            OJ L 36, 7.2.2004, p. 6.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/3572/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)