"Prosciutto from Njegusi has obtained a geographical label at the request of the NGO Association of Producers of Specialties coming from Njegusi, based in Cetinje. The application for the protection of the designation of origin for "Pljevlja cheese" was submitted by the association with the same name. The procedure was to allocate a geographical label for the Montenegrin beef prsut and Montenegrin stelja, whose registration was initiated by the Association for Quality of Meat of Northern Montenegro. We expect the label registration for these two products to be successful. The protection procedure was also initiated for Durmitor skorup," said the Ministry of Agriculture.
The Ministry recalled that there are more labels of agricultural and food products that are in the procedure for obtaining the same.
The procedure for protecting the product with any of these marks is initiated by filing a registration application with the Ministry of Agriculture, which then forms the commission for carrying out the registration process of the label.
An application must be accompanied by a manufacturer's specification and submitted supporting evidence contained in that document.
"The most demanding part is writing a specification detailing the product and the way of production, confirming that the terms for registration of the label are respected. The Commission of the Ministry evaluates the documentation and if all conditions are met, the registration of the label is approved. The control of the manufacturer for fulfilling the defined requirements of the manufacturer specification is carried out by the audit committee," said the Ministry.
Montenegro has said that in the last two years, significant improvements have been made in quality certification through the protection of names and in the overall improvement of the quality of domestic products.
"We expect our manufacturers will recognize the benefits and opportunities they offer and the labels "higher quality", “mountain products", and "from my farm", can be registered in a simpler procedure and as individual producers," the Ministry says. The product protection procedure for some of the labels defined by the national legislation, according to the principle of quality scheme in the EU, is a complex process. The main motive for protecting the name is to achieve an additional value of the product with the proven reputation and specificity conditioned by the geographical environment, skills or proven traditional production method. Organic production in Montenegro is made up of 308 producers, of which 91 are certificated.
"Most of the certificates are for fruit and cereals. Bijelo Polje and Pljevlja are the municipalities with the most certified producers," concluded the Ministry of Agriculture.
Text by Pobjeda, on June 19th 2018, read more at CdM
