`Sicily Ready for PGI Certification - Olive Oil Times
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Sicily Ready for PGI Certification

By Marco Marino
Nov. 12, 2014 08:32 UTC

On October 7, at Utveggio Castle in Palermo, offi­cials of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, together with the mem­bers of the Organizing Committee and the Regional Department for Agriculture, sur­veyed Sicilian EVOO stake­hold­ers about achiev­ing a ​“Sicily Extra Virgin Olive Oil PGI” cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

The pro­tected geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion, or ​“PGI,” is a geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tions and tra­di­tional spe­cial­ties in the European Union. Three European Union schemes of geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tions and tra­di­tional spe­cial­ties, known as pro­tected des­ig­na­tion of ori­gin (PDO), pro­tected geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion (PGI), and tra­di­tional spe­cial­ties guar­an­teed (TSG), pro­mote and pro­tect names of qual­ity agri­cul­tural prod­ucts and food­stuffs.

The prod­uct spec­i­fi­ca­tions for Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva IGP Siciliawere laid down last year by the Food and Agriculture Department of Sicily and it has already been approved by the national author­i­ties.

The con­fer­ence in Palermo was the last fun­da­men­tal step for brand reg­is­tra­tion: after its pub­li­ca­tion on the Official Gazette of the Italian Republic, the pro­posal will be sent to Brussels for the European review and, in a few months, PGI cer­ti­fi­ca­tion will be offi­cial.
See Also:Sicily EVOO PGI Guidelines (Italian)
The Regional Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Ezechia Reale, said: ​“The reg­is­tra­tion of PGI cer­ti­fi­ca­tion will pro­vide greater vis­i­bil­ity to Sicilian EVOO and will sup­port Sicilian olive busi­ness­men to face com­mer­cial com­pe­ti­tion both on domes­tic and for­eign mar­kets.”

Mr. Reale also pointed out that the new cer­ti­fi­ca­tion will be given a great expo­sure within the ​“Bio-Mediterranean Cluster” (the Mediterranean Culture and Food sec­tion dur­ing EXPO 2015 in Milan), where Sicily will be one of the pro­tag­o­nists. Last September, the Region of Sicily and Expo 2015 signed the agree­ment for the clus­ter. Sicily will sched­ule work­shops and events tak­ing place dur­ing six months of the World Fair.

The PGI label will allow Sicilian pro­duc­ers to access the resources pro­vided by 2014 – 2020 Regional Development Plan (RDP), that is the pri­mary tool for plan­ning and fund­ing regional inter­ven­tions in agri­cul­ture, forestry and rural devel­op­ment.

RDP is esti­mated to allo­cate more than € 2 bil­lion to pro­mote cer­tifi­cated regional prod­ucts mak­ing Sicily the Italian region with the most funds for devel­op­ment plans.

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