Protecting Fine Foods
One of the benefits of the European Union is the ability to protect regional foods from unfair competition from other member states. Welsh lamb, for example, is protected, so are Cornish clotted cream and Stilton cheese. The country with the most protections is France with 161, with Italy just behind on 155. In the UK there are only 35 foods that are actually protected.
Some brands are currently seeking protection and these include Yorkshire rhubarb.
It is one of those trivial pursuit type questions – where is most of the rhubarb in the United Kingdom grown? Answer – the so called ‘Rhubarb Triangle’ centred on Batley. I remembered this had come up in conversation some how with Lisa Francis just before we both arrived at a drinks party in Mid Wales some time ago and there were some house guests there from Batley. Lisa spoke to them at one end of the room and bored on about rhubarb and by the time they had got to the other end of the room I did the same. They must have thought that there was some obsession about Yorkshire rhubarb on the part of people in Wales, and specifically Welsh Assembly Members!
Clearly there are many Welsh foods that should apply to get protected status, some of our cheeses and dairy products for example.
Achieving protected status doesn’t just mean that imitative products are prohibited, but it also means that funds are available to help promote the delicacy concerned.
