Parmesan Cheese Belongs to Italians Court Rules!
The highest court of Europe ruled that the right to market cheese under the name Parmesan should go to the Italians. The court also dismissed the German’s claim that they can use the same name for their own variations of cheese. The Parmesan cheese is used as a topping in pasta. European Court of Justice in Luxembourg held that only those varieties of cheeses which bear the protected designation of origin `Parmigiano Reggiano’ can be allowed to sell in the market bearing the name Parmesan.
This ruling by the highest court in Europe will help the European Union in its efforts to expand marketing security for food items that come from particular regions in Europe like Roquefort cheese and Prosciutto di Parma. The argument regarding the range of the supposed geographical indications has set the European Union against nations like Australia, Argentina, and the United States in the global trade discussions. Author of `Italian Cheese: A Guide to Its Discovery and Appreciation, Piero Sardo seemed very elated with this court ruling and said that is was a totally wonderful news and further added that this dispute has been going on without any result in site for as long as 12 years.
Paolo De Castro, the Italian Agriculture Minister expressed that with this ruling by the court thus the doubts and suspicions surrounding the name Parmesan are removed. De Castro offered a big piece of the debated cheese to reporters at the press conference in Rome and said that now in Europe consumers can find authentic Parmesan. However, he further added that outside the European Union the case is quite different and consumers run the risk of buying Parmesan which is not Parmesan at all. In Italy there are five hundred Parmesan producers who all are certified which the Consortium of Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese represents. These certified parmesan producers firmly adhere to the 800 year old method of making the Parmesan cheese. In the last year the official sales figure of the Parmesan cheese had stood at 1.5 billion euros which is $2.2 billion and the 16% of the total Parmesan sold was in the form of exports.
Parmigiano Reggiano is secured as the geographical indication since 1996 in the twenty seven nation strong European Union. The protection means that the name can only be used for the cheese produced, grated and packaged in the regions surrounding the cities of Parma and Reggio in Italy. The executive agency of the European Union, the European Commission went to court against Germany when it did not punish the cheese makers who used the name and it also argued that that name was generic. The European Commission had said that Parmesan is the rendition of the protected phrase Parmigiano Reggiano. A Parmesan producer Paolo Carra coming from the nearby region of Mantova, Italy expressed that the name Parmesan should be protected because not only the consumers but also the producers are cheated. When consumers buy Parmesan which actually is not a Parmesan cheese, producers run the risk of losing customers who are not satisfied with the quality of the cheese.
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