A leading Danish gastronome has called for the country’s famous Havarti cheese to be protected under copyright laws.
The Copenhagen Post reports that Havarti could join the likes of Parmesan, Feta and Roquefort as being names protected cheeses if a proposal by the Gastronomical Academy is successful. Supermarkets across Scandinavia and Europe are filled with cheeses that have been afforded ‘Protected Geographical Indication’ or ‘Protected Designation of Origin’ classification by the European Union, although Denmark is lamenting its lack of appearance on such lists. The PGI and PDO labels used by the EU are for the protection of originality and naming of iconic products.
The reason for the lack of officially protected cheeses, according to the Gastronomical Academy’s vice-president Claus Tingstrom, is that Denmark’s agricultural industry has been slow to act. Danish authorities notably disputed the awarding of Feta as an exclusively Greek cheese some years ago arguing that a large amount of white Feta was manufactured in Denmark.
“Danish agriculture has for many years thrived by making copies of other countries’ agricultural products. It’s gone well for a long time, but consumers are now willing to pay more for the original products,” claimed Tingstrom.
The Greek experience taught the Danish industry valuable lessons and forced them to rethink their marketing tactics according to the Danish Agriculture and Food Council’s Winnie Pauli. She pointed out Danablue and Esrum as examples of cheeses that had achieved PGI status in the past.
“The label is a new way of thinking. You could say that Danish agriculture is in a new start-up phase,” said Pauli. “France is leading the way, as people there have really understood how to maintain their original products and earn money on them,” she added.
The EU now has received applications for Havarti along with Danbo and Funen smoked cheese.
In general, I’m against protective economic policies. They DO hurt everyone in the long run. Having said that, it is next to impossible to get countries to “play fair”. If I were in the Danish government, I’d probably be on the side of copyright protection.
Protectionism seems to be an instinct in developed nations. Oh well, at least it’s cheese and not vital industries that are being protected from competition.
Denmark is sellig french rocquefort cheese, advertising it as ‘Danish blue’.
This is such a stupid idea, it would be like for the italians making a copyright of pizza and spaguetti. Then Italy would become the richest country on earth just by the hudreds of millions of people in the world who would have to pay “consumer rights” for eating pasta… That kind of cheese is produced all over scandinavia and baltic countries, even in germany, but they just give them different names..
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This is a great idea!