What’s In A Name? U S, Eu Battle Over ‘feta’ In Commerce Talks

He then curdled half the white milk, gathered it all up, and stored it in wicker baskets …’. In this fashion the Cyclops, Polyphemus, made the cheese which Ulysses and his men found within the cave. However, the willpower and proof of genericity typically cause disagreements that involve competing pursuits of countries for historical reasons. 82 In countries with a lot of European immigrant populations corresponding to Australia, Canada, the US and components of Latin America, European place names had been robert phipps per stirling often borrowed to promote locally produced products that had been just like merchandise in the unique nation. 83 As a end result, producers in these nations treat most of these names and signs as generic. However, until recently his product was not in a place to compete in the world market.

Legislation of a Member State which prevents the advertising, under the gross sales description `feta’, of a cheese lawfully produced and marketed underneath that name in one other Member State is a measure having equal impact to a quantitative restriction, opposite to Article 30 of the EC Treaty. 78 Therefore I contemplate that legislation of a Member State meant to protect the rights which represent the precise subject-matter of a geographical name, corresponding to `feta’, are justified on the bottom of protection of commercial and industrial property referred to in Article 36 of the Treaty. The geographical area the place feta is produced covers Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus, Thessaly, mainland Greece, the Peloponnese and the island of Lesbos.

The third query relates to the variations between Danish feta and Greek feta and to the potential higher weight of the perspective of Greek customers for assessing the matter, given the characteristics of the manufacturing and consumption of feta within the Community. The European Union protects about 1500 regional specialty meals such as Feta cheese and Gouda Holland. However, this geographical indications protection doesn’t routinely lengthen to different jurisdictions.

Greece was granted these special rights for feta with the latest October 2002 determination by the European Commission for the Protected Designation of Origin status. This decision got here after a thirteen-year battle with different feta producers. These other major producers, Denmark, France, and Germany argued that feta had turn into a generic name for this type of cheese. However, after evidence was launched concerning the origin of feta, which dates back to historical instances of Greece, it turned clear that feta was a Greek cheese. The implications of this determination has brought on hassle for sure farmers.

Company president Stewart Cardiff says relabeling just isn’t even his high concern. But new Canadian brands of “feta” will have to call their cheese “feta-style” or “imitation feta” and can’t evoke Greece on the label, corresponding to utilizing Greek lettering or a picture of ancient Greek columns. Canada is a vital market – and the brand new deal means not solely the removing of import tariffs but additionally additional safeguards for Greek feta. The feta industry accounts for greater than 70% of Greek cheese exports and – not like a lot of the struggling Greek economic system – it is expanding.

The use of the word gained acceptance in Greece within the 19th century to designate the standard white cheese in brine, which has been made in nearly the entire of Greece and different elements of the Balkans since time immemorial. Greek Feta cheese should contain a minimal of 70 percent sheep’s milk and no more than 30 p.c goat’s milk . What makes feta cheese so personable to the Greek tradition has to do not only with historical past but also with the daily lives of Greeks. It is eaten always of the day, and a meal isn’t full with out its presence on the table.