QMS Leads Talks On Behalf of EU Meat Industry
EU - Quality Meat Scotland is representing the European meat sector at a high level meeting in Brussels today examining possible EU changes to quality marks such as the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).
24 October 2008
1 minute read
QMS helps promote two of the world’s best-known PGI bearing products, Scotch Beef and Scotch Lamb, and the organisation’s long experience in the field has led to a request to front up the talks on behalf of the European meat industry.
Head of Industry Development Andy McGowan will make a presentation on behalf of the European Livestock and Meat Trading Union, which represents the interests of European meat companies to the Advisory Group on Quality Agricultural Production within the Agricultural Directorate at the European Commission.
Andy said: "Scotland produces the finest beef and lamb in the world and recognition of its quality by European consumers provides opportunities to lift us into the premium market that is less affected by global commodity trading and speculation.
“The PGIs are currently a vital tool in helping channel promotional support to the brands but we would like to see improvements to the enforcement requirements to build their role in combating fraud and mislabelling.
“Improvements should also be made to simplify the application procedure cutting down the time, currently about three years, that it takes to make a submission. This would make European quality schemes much more accessible to other high quality Scottish food products."
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