Afd and protected geographical indications

Coffee flowers, PGI Bolaven Coffee, Lao PDR © AFD – Jean-Claude Chesnais

AFD AND PROTECTED GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS

Promoting producers’ know-how and increasing their incomes

Consequently, AFD is planning to operate in southern Africa, where a project to optimize the use of natural resources is already underway.

AFD will also continue its interventions in favor of OAPI (Frenchspeaking Africa).

Jordanian olives, oil mill © AFD – Caroline Abt

PROTECTING AND PROMOTING TRADITIONAL KNOW-HOWS Promoting local produce meets a growing need for producers to highlight their identity or action and stand out on increasingly competitive markets. Quality labels, particularly protected geographical indications (PGIs), which link a product’s quality and reputation to a regional area, to a large extent provide a solution to these dynamics. PGIs improve market outlets, increase local producers’ incomes and enhance natural resources management. Their effective implementation requires the support of the entire chain of stakeholders in a sector. PGIs also contribute to an approach to enhance and conserve biological and cultural diversity.

AFD is committed to supporting the development of regulatory frameworks and public policies for PGIs and helps sectors to improve the quality of products, have them registered as PGIs, and distribute them.

These activities are implemented as part of the Trade capacity building program (PRCC). It aims to develop international trade, which is a tool for growth and poverty reduction.

PGIs: AN OFFICIAL LABEL OF ORIGIN AND QUALITY PGIs identify a product as originating in the territory of a country, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the product is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.

Consequently, it is primarily a name recognized on the market by consumers. The product’s reputation is linked to both a production area – a climate, type of soil, natural resources – and a tradition and know-how that has been perfected over time, which give it a unique character.

PGIs aim to recognize and promote this typicality, as well as to help consumers make an informed choice, thanks to a joint commitment by professionals and governments. They provide information on the specific production conditions, which meet specifications that are validated by public authorities and controlled.

PGIs promote the product, but they also protect it. They are an autonomous intellectual property right that complies with the international ADPIC agreements. This results in a collective right of use (product name, logo, etc.) reserved exclusively for the stakeholders in a given territory, who comply with the specifications.

AFD AND PGIs TODAY AFD’s activity mainly focuses on Asia, the Mediterranean region and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Its first area of activity concerns the establishment of appropriate legislation. AFD helps governments to define or adapt legislation on intellectual property rights. This is, for example, the case in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Tunisia and Vietnam. AFD also helps to develop and build the capacities of administrations to register and protect PGIs. Its second area of activity is to support sectors: it involves organizing producers and trade associations and improving both the quality of products and their distribution on markets. This makes it possible to have products certified on the basis of needs and in accordance with the legislation in force in the country (PGIs, collective labels, private quality labels – organic or fair trade certification…). Registration as a PGI can take place at a later stage, as these quality labels are not exclusive, in fact it is quite the contrary. For example, coffee from the Bolaven plateau in Lao PDR, which has already been certified organic and fair trade with AFD’s support, is continuing its process to be registered as a PGI.

AND TOMORROW Processes to create PGIs and support governments are already ongoing or planned in Lao PDR, Madagascar, Mauritius, Vietnam…

AFD aims to open up to other Asian countries, as well as to the Englishspeaking part of Africa, where trademark laws are currently applied more (trademarks held by distributors) and offer less protection to producers.

Branch of a coffee tree © AFD – Jean-Claude Chesnais

AN INTEGRATED PROCESS: THE FIRST AFRICAN PGIS COME INTO BEING THANKS TO THE SUPPORT PROVIDED TO OAPI AFD not only helps governments, but also the African intellectual property organization (OAPI) to establish PGIs, which did not exist in sub-Saharan Africa.

The process for each product is as follows:

Agreement is reached on the typicality of a product and its intrinsic quality;

Support is provided, where necessary, to improve quality (harvesting method, treatment, processing of the product);

The production area for the PGI is defined;

Producers and trade associations are organized: the entire producer-manufacturer- trader-exporter chain must comply with specifications (production, processing and storage rules);

Support is given to the professional organizations in charge of granting and controlling the label;

Support is given for marketing the product.

AFD attaches particular importance to training in the technical aspects and internal control.

Sub-Saharan Africa now has three PGIs: Penja pepper and Oku white honey (Cameroon), and Ziama coffee (Guinea) are protected. Other products are currently being considered.

L’OAPI is a regional organization comprising 16 African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo. OAPI’s recognition of a PGI implies a cross recognition and protection that is directly valid in all member countries.

SUPPORT FOR THE PGI PROCESS IN TUNISIA In 1999, Tunisia introduced a regulatory framework that recognizes and protects PGIs. Yet despite this legislation, few products are registered under quality labels.

Since 2012, AFD, assisted by CIRAD (Center for international research on environment and development), has been helping Tunisia to operationalize its PGI process. This process supports the country’s agricultural policy, which promotes quality, the preservation of production methods and the development of exports of agricultural products.

AFD is helping the Tunisian Government to establish the PGI system and harmonize current legislation with international standards in order to facilitate the recognition of Tunisian PGIs on world markets.

It specifically aims to achieve international recognition for three pilot products: olive oil from Teboursouk, Deglet Nour dates from Kebili and Tozeur, and pomegranates from Gabès.

Kampot pepper, Cambodia © AFD – Jean-Claude Chesnais

“KAMPOT PEPPER” PGI IN CAMBODIA: GOOD PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATION OF STAKEHOLDERS In Cambodia, following the adoption of national legislation, AFD financed two pilot PGI projects: Kompong speu palm sugar and Kampot pepper.

Three types of Kampot pepper are marketed: red, black and white. It was already well-known locally and has become internationally renowned thanks to the PGI: it is beginning to be distributed in delicatessens all over the world and is used by top chefs. Producers’ incomes have increased tenfold thanks to the establishment of the PGI. The work primarily involved stabilizing quality and mainstreaming good practices (in particular thanks to the experience of Farmlink and exchanges with the PGI union for Espelette chili peppers). A trade association was set up to validate and supervise the quantity and quality requirements for production and marketing, provide training for members, and fight against counterfeiting. Finally, a cooperative was set up to facilitate marketing.

PGIs FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION A PGI can directly contribute to biodiversity conservation as it promotes the use of a specific local biological resource. When a local plant variety or breed of animal is recognized as an essential component of the specificity of a product of origin, it is listed in the specifications.

This is, for example, the case for the Deglet Nour date (PGI Kebili Date, Tunisia). The PGI process can, in certain cases, make it possible to reintroduce endangered local breeds or varieties.

The PGI also indirectly contributes to maintaining biodiversity by promoting certain production and natural resources management practices. The quality and image of the product – and thus its value – are directly related to the use that is made of local resources (soils, landscapes, genetic resources…): producers therefore seek to preserve them and manage them in a sustainable manner. This is, for example, the case with Oku honey in Cameroon, the originality of which mainly depends on the ecosystem of the forest of the same name.

When environmental protection is of recognized interest, AFD and the French GEF prepare joint projects in order to combine the promotion of local products and biodiversity protection.

Deglet Nour dates from Kebili, pitting, Tunisia © AFD – Aurélie Ahmim-Richard

The Penja pepper team and AFD team on the plantations © AFD – Jean-Claude Chesnais

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AFD is present on four continents where it has an international network of seventy agencies and representation offices, including nine in the French Overseas Provinces and one in Brussels. It finances and supports projects that improve people’s living conditions, promote economic growth and protect Earth, such as schooling for children, maternal health, support for farmers and small businesses, water supply, tropical forest preservation, and the fight against climate change.

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In 2012, AFD approved EUR 7 billion to finance activities in developing countries and the French Overseas Communities. Main outcomes of AFD’s funding are monitored every year. For instance, money delivered will help get 10 million children into primary school and 3 million into secondary school; they will also improve drinking water supply for 1.79 million people. Energy efficiency projects financed by AFD in 2012 will save nearly 3.6 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

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PROPARCO, AFD’s subsidiary dedicated to private investment, promotes private investment in emerging and developing countries in order to boost growth, promote sustainable development and reach the Millennium Development Goals. Its financing is tailored to the specific needs of investors in the productive sector, financial systems, infrastructure and private equity investment.

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The CEFEB is the AFD’s corporate University that supports its partner countries and its own personnel. Every year, the CEFEB organizes a professional Masters and about 60 seminars, of short and medium duration, on the themes of development.

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FFEM

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FFEM is a bilateral public facility set up by the French Government in 1994 following the Rio Summit. It aims at promoting global environmental protection via sustainable development projects in developing or transition countries.

The French Global Environment Facility supports physical projects in recipient countries. Its operations are learningbased and support experimental, innovative or exemplary approaches.

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Agence Française de Développement (French Development Agency – AFD) is a public development finance institution that has been working to fight poverty and foster economic growth in developing countries and the French Overseas Communities for seventy years. It executes the policy defined by the French Government.