Of the 1,481 products listed in the European Commission’s Database of Origin & Registration (DOOR), a mere 29 come from Balkan peninsula countries (excluding Greece). This very limited fi gure cannot be explained by the common socialist heritage shared by these countries at different stages, as other nations with communist regimes in their past like Poland or the Czech Republic have 39 and 35 registered products respectively. Neither can we blame a lack of food traditions and biodiversity in the Balkan peninsula, as Greece alone accounts for 103 origin-linked registered products.
The following narrative information sheets describe origin-linked food and agricultural products from the Balkan peninsula that could be protected through EC quality schemes, highlighting potential geographical indications (GIs) in one of the areas of Europe that has least exploited the contribution of origin-linked products to rural and agricultural development strategies.
The information sheets are the result of fi eld research carried out by Slow Food in three Balkan peninsula countries: Al[1]bania, Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia. These countries were selected based on the capacity of Slow Food’s local networks, as well as the locations of other previous FAO projects in the region. Bulgaria, Albania and Macedonia also represent different levels of EU integration, with Bulgaria already a full EU member and the other two offi cial candidate countries.
This inventory is based on the questionnaire developed by FAO within the framework of the FAO-EBRD project in Monte[1]negro by the local implementer REDD. This version combines the two questionnaires from the FAO methodology (see the Quality&Origin Web Tool (QOW), http://www.fao.org/food-quality-origin/webtool/about-olq/it/) integrating most of the product identity form—the whole of the QOM’s Questionnaire 1—and a few questions from Questionnaire 2 to measure the size of the value chain. We have further added three more questions developed specifi cally for these inventories by Slow Food and three others proposed by FAO. Following FAO approval the questionnaire was explained and sent to the selected local experts who carried out the research:
- Aren Rexha, agronomist (Albania)
- Dessislava Dimitrova, associate professor at the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, and Teodora Ivanova, assistant professor at the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research of the Bulgarian Academy of Science (Bulgaria)
- Emilija Nedelkovska, Anita Glavevska and Elena Karovska, responsible for Slow Food’s Ark of Taste inventory in the Republic of Macedonia.
Data collection was carried out through direct fi eld visits undertaken between June 1 and September 15, 2015.
Публикацијата симни ја од тука.
©Slow Food, 2015