By Rachel Clun
Feta, parmesan, prosescco: these are household names for all sorts of Australian products. But if Europe has its way, that will soon change.
The federal government is in the final round of major negotiations for a free-trade deal with the European Union which has been years in the making.
Australian prosecco producer Otto Dal Zotto, and parmesan maker Mauro Montalto.
Already trade between the two is worth nearly $100 billion, but both sides are hoping to improve access for products ranging from beef and sugar to financial services.
But geographic indicator protections are a major sticking point in the deal, and any concession to Europe’s demands that would block the right to have Australian feta, parmesan and prosecco will create losers.
It’s clear a name change would hurt local producers. What is less clear is how the European Union would benefit from such protections.
ANU honorary associate professor Hazel Moir has spent nearly a decade researching the impacts of geographic indicators. Many consumers would be surprised to learn some of the food products so fiercely defended by EU regulations have ingredients from way outside their region, and sometimes what is on the label is not even a place.
There are plenty of examples: 80 per cent of Pecorino Romano cheese comes from Sardinia, not the province surrounding Rome; while Gorgonzola is a town near Milan, the cheese can be made in 15 Italian provinces; black forest ham requires wood from the black forest for smoking, but the pork can come from anywhere.
And feta means slice – it is not a region. Prosecco was the name of a grape variety – until the name was changed to glera by the Italian government in its bid to protect the name of the bubbling wine.
But it’s not just unclear how consumers benefit. Moir said there was a little evidence on what the price premium for GI-protected food is, as certified products cost more to produce. But when it comes to regional development, the evidence of benefits is woollier.
“If we don’t know how it benefits producers, we can’t know how it benefits regions,” she said.
It would, however, harm Australian producers to lose these labels.
Like Mauro Montalto’s Floridia Cheese, many of these businesses were started two or three generations ago by migrants who moved to Australia and started making cheese and deli products they missed from home, and are now carried on by the children and grandchildren of their founders.
Otto Dal Zotto planted Australia’s first prosecco grapes to make the wine he first tasted as a child in Italy.
So if it’s not good for consumers, not good for Australian producers, and the benefits for European producers are unclear, it begs the question – what good would it serve to limit Australia’s access to these household names?
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