New sanctionary system for PDO

29.11.04

Parma, 29 October 2004 – It is with great satisfaction that the Parma Ham Consortium welcomes the new italian decree that will set up a general sanctionary system for all PDO (protected designation of origin) and PGI (protected geographical indication) products.

This means that Prosciutto di Parma now enjoys an even wider protection. From the one side, all the provisions laid down by Italian Special Law No. 26 dated 1990 remain, together with the detailed financial sanctions identified under Italian Legislative Decree 507/99; from the other side, all law provisions envisaged by this new decree are directly applicable to our sector.

The Consortium has fought hard to obtain this result. It should be remembered that at the beginning the text presented by the Government didn’t take into consideration the peculiarity of the Consortium’s strict sanctionary system, excluding all references to the special law that protects Parma Ham.

“This new rule, sensibly complements the new sanctionary system with existing ones thus protecting traditional, well-established situations and the individuality of different sectors with the general interests of new products, guaranteeing maximum protection of all denominations and, at the same time, offering further legal instruments in order to safeguard PDO and PGI products” said Alessandro Utini, president of the Parma Ham Consortium.

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