Abstract:

Providing continuity and homogeneity in quality of traditional and local products enables producers to increase their income and consumers to protect themselves besides protection of these products as a cultural heritage. The procedure which is called “geographic indication” during registration of local products differentiates a product from the others through a reference to a given geographical area and proving its originality. Supplying a product to consumers with a registration, indicating that the product belongs to a certain region, is important in terms of, i) making the product different in quality and price, ii) assuring committed features of the product, iii) contributing to its producers and production area through increasing the added value, iv) protecting their producers against fraud. The numbers of geographic indications (GIs), of which efficiency has improved in the protection of small producers and products from small scale, are getting increased day by day thanks to its being a common brand. Turkish legislation regarding the issue has been improved following the EU legislation. Recently, there are some challenges in practice although there are nearly 150 GIs in Turkey. EU registration has been open to applications of the third countries by the amendment of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 since the year 2006. The first product with geographic indication from non-EU countries is had been the Colombian Coffee. It was followed by China with 4 products and India, Thailand Vietnam, each with 1 product. The other products in the evaluation process are originated from China, India, Morocco, Andorra and Turkey. In this context, “Antep Baklavası” and “Aydın İnciri” from Turkey have applied to be registered with GIs in the EU Food Quality Scheme. This study discusses the potential importance of GIs through investigating current status, related terminology, application and control mechanisms based on related legislation and database in both Turkey and EU.

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