{"id":27725,"date":"2017-07-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-09T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/european-law-could-make-manuka-honey-kiwi-as\/"},"modified":"2017-07-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-09T12:00:00","slug":"european-law-could-make-manuka-honey-kiwi-as","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/european-law-could-make-manuka-honey-kiwi-as\/","title":{"rendered":"European law could make manuka honey Kiwi-as"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

The European Union was likely to include the right to geographical indications in any free-trade agreement with New Zealand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told a public meeting last month.<\/p>\n

The EU defined a geographical indication or GI as a distinctive sign used to identify a product as originating in the territory of a country, region or locality.<\/p>\n

Famous GIs include Champagne wine, Feta cheese and Parma ham. The tag was also applied to Scotch whisky, Cognac, Roquefort cheese, Sherry, Parmigiano Reggiano, Teruel and Tuscany olives.<\/p>\n

At a recent public briefing on the Government\u2019s Trade Agenda 2030, Martin Harvey, NZ\u2019s lead negotiator for the EU FTA talks said Europe had a \u201cparticular yearning\u201d to extend geographical indications beyond wines and spirits.<\/p>\n

If the European Union\u2019s recent free-trade deals were a guide, several hundred products could be listed as geographical indications in a Kiwi FTA.<\/p>\n

Cheese and processed meats would probably be on the register, Harvey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe area of dairy is a particularly sensitive one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the sensitivity of the trade negotiation Harvey said he could not comment on whether NZ would consider reciprocating with its own GIs.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re asking me to talk about negotiating strategy and I don\u2019t want to talk about that in public.\u201d<\/p>\n

University of Canterbury trade and economic law expert Riffel chaired the Trade Agenda 2030 briefing in Christchurch.<\/p>\n

He referred to an EU website that suggested manuka honey was just as geographically distinctive as Feta.<\/p>\n

The EU website said feta cheese \u201cis not named after a place but is so closely connected to Greece as to be identified as an inherently Greek product\u201d.<\/p>\n

Based on this definition, Riffel said, NZ farmers could use geographical indications as a tool to market agricultural products of Kiwi origin overseas.<\/p>\n

If NZ chose to adopt EU-type policy for GIs it might be possible to trademark use of the word manuka without the addition of a place name, he said.<\/p>\n

Riffel said te reo and Maori culture generally gave NZ products like manuka honey instant provenance and marketability.<\/p>\n

One of the most active marketers of Maori and NZ provenance was the state-owned farmer Landcorp with the Pamu brand. It had partnerships with Duncan Venison and Australian retailer Prestige Carpets.<\/p>\n

Pamu was a Maori word meaning to farm.<\/p>\n

Landcorp spokesman Richard Ninness said Pamu was \u201ca story of care, management of farms, environment, people and product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pamu brand manager Emma Adcock said food service and retail partners recognised Pamu as a distinctively NZ brand and the name represented an \u201cauthentic connection to both the corporate brand and customer-facing brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landcorp was looking at opportunities to extend the use of Pamu into lamb, dairy and other products but would first consider factors such as volume, seasonality and potential to add value, she said.<\/p>\n

An NZTE spokeswoman said it did not give<\/span>\u00a0advice to companies on legal protections for their products but it did\u00a0support \u201ccoalitions\u201d, including Maori businesses, working together for a common purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European policies protecting branding of home-grown products like Champagne could be a winner for manuka honey and other Kiwi products, trade and international law academic Christian Riffel says.\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t