Denmark accepts ‘feta’ proposal compromise

Date: 07/03/1996

By Michael Mann

NEW proposals adopted by the European Commission will effectively ban the sale of Danish feta cheese within the EU's borders - unless it changes it name.

Copenhagen originally sought permission to market its cheese as “Danish feta made from cow's milk”. This was rejected, but Danish officials confessed they were quietly satisfied with the compromise worked out under pressure from their Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard.

The proposal to protect the geographical denominations of 318 products limits the name feta to cheese made on the Greek mainland from sheep or goat's milk.

Danish support for the proposal was won by a promise to push for a five-year transitional period, rather than forcing through the changes in July 1997 as originally intended. Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler also pledged that export refunds currently applying on feta produced in EU member states other than Greece would not suffer.

He stressed the rules apply only to the marketing of feta within the Union's borders, meaning that Danish exports totalling 85,000 tonnes a year and worth an annual 150 million ecu - mainly to the Balkan states and the Middle East - can continue to be sold under the name feta.

Officials also pointed out that the rules will protect existing trade marks, allowing Denmark to continue exporting its cheese to Greece under the “Fetina” label.

The Commission also adopted a list of six 'generic' cheeses - Brie, Camembert, Cheddar, Edam, Emmentaler and Gouda - whose production may not be limited to a particular region.

Fischler said a further list of products to be awarded special geographical protection from the 1,400 or so initially proposed by the member states would be brought forward before the summer.

Agriculture ministers now have three months to agree the proposal, or the Commission can force it through under its own competence.