The brand “Abacate do Algarve” is already being registered and “will be made definitive” on the 7th of July, he said today in Faro Ana Soeiro, executive director of the Qualifica/oriGIn Portugal association, who helped the Algfuturo association to create the new official identity for this fruit.
The new brand was presented during an event promoted this Wednesday by Algfuturo, at the Municipal Library of Faro, dedicated to the culture of avocado in the Algarve.
The option to register a collective mark was made because it was impossible, at least for now, to apply for a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) for this fruit, since there are still no studies to support that it is different from that produced elsewhere.
“When geographical indication is not possible, an important weapon available to producers is the collective brand, which is a national system, but with European recognition”, summarized Ana Soeiro, during the session.
This registration allows its holder, in this case Algfuturo, "to discipline production and marketing".
“To register a trademark there has to be a set of rules. We have to have a specification that establishes what can be called Abacate do Algarve», said the person responsible for Qualifica, who also helped to obtain the IGP Citrinos do Algarve.
One of the requirements may be the guarantee that production has “conditions of sustainability”, which implies “not wasting water, not wasting energy, not degrading the soil”.
«The specification, in the end, is the mirror of the sum of all these requirements», summed up the also vice-president for Europe of the oriGIn movement, the entity responsible for attributing in the European Union the designation of origin or geographical to food products.
According to Ana Soeiro, there is “a grid of possible non-compliances and penalties that people may have in case of non-compliance”, since, she stressed, “there must be control mechanisms” to guarantee quality products.
Another advantage is that, as the collective mark “works on a basis very close to the IGP, it serves as a training ground for the effective recognition of the geographical indication”.
And how will this certification be achieved? Through future studies, which may come to find particularities in the avocados produced in the region.
«A first work was done here, which is not finished, because it can always be improved and must always be improved. And one day, in fact, we will be able to demonstrate that the Algarve avocado either has a color or a flavor or a PH or a specific sugar content, because it is produced in the region», framed Ana Soeiro, on the sidelines of the session, in statements to journalists.
"At that point, we will then walk towards the geographical indication, without any problem", he concluded.
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