Labelling of agricultural and food products of mountain farming

Abstract

With a view to making the mountain products on the market more clearly identifiable and less misleading for consumers, the EU institutions legislated on a common definition of an optional quality term, 'mountain product', in the labelling of agricultural products. The term 'mountain product' should only be used for products for which the feed and the raw materials come essentially from mountain areas and for which the processing also takes place in mountain areas. The European Commission will adopt implementing acts setting derogations to the general principles of the new Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs in order to take into account the specificities of the different sectors involved. In this context, the present report aims to (i) gather and analyse information on the supply chains for agricultural and food products in mountain areas; (ii) review the possible reasons why citizens, stakeholders and consumers need clarity regarding the provenance of mountain products; and (iii) assess past and present labelling practices for mountain products. Flexibility might be sought in the derogations to the rules governing the term 'mountain product' with regards to the exact place where feed is sourced, to the places where agricultural raw material produced in mountain areas are transformed in further processed goods, to the share of non-mountain ingredients within a mountain processed product that may be considered as acceptable. Means for a proper enforcement of the rules and to ensure coexistence between the new optional quality term 'mountain product' and other existing tools, such as trademarks and geographical indications, should be proposed. In absence of derogations, the applicability the optional quality term 'mountain products' would be impaired.