Name game fight for dairy industry

AUSTRALIA’S dairy industry has vowed to fight for the right to keep calling dairy products by their common food names, saying $650 million of sales are at risk.

The move comes after the federal government revealed Europe had made a bid to stop Australian cheesemakers from describing their wares as feta.

Europe also wants “geographical indications of origin” restrictions on Gruyere, Roquefort and Gorgonzola cheeses.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has released a list with names of 172 foods and 236 spirits the European Union wants exclusively for European producers, as part of negotiations towards a socalled free-trade agreement with Australia. Italian authorities and winemakers want the term “prosecco” protected under a trade deal with Australia, meaning Australian producers would be banned from using it.

The Australian Dairy Industry Council yesterday said it was “deeply concerned with EU efforts to impose their trade restrictive GI (geographical indications) regime on Australia” through a free-trade agreement.

In a statement, the council said: “Australia’s dairy industry will continue to defend its right to call dairy products by their common food names.”

The council estimates the EU’s demand to restrict many cheese and dairy product names could “put at risk local products with an aggregate sales value of more than $650 million (a year)”. It said it was also “alarmed” by the EU’s interest in extending the scope of labelling restrictions to include colours, flags, and “even symbols that might evoke EU countries”. “The EU request even extends as far as to include the use of product names accompanied by the terms ‘style’, ‘type’ and ‘like’, and translations of these names,” the council said.