Deputy Minister celebrates Welsh EU Protected Food Names at Royal Welsh Show ceremony

Deputy Minister for Farming and Food, Rebecca Evans today congratulated Welsh food and drink producers for achieving EU Protected Food Name (PFN) status.

At an event held at the Food Hall at the Royal Welsh Show today, four products presented with Welsh slate plaques to celebrate EU PFN status. They were PGI Welsh Lamb, Welsh Beef, PGI Pembrokeshire Earlies and PDO Halen Môn Sea Salt.

Deputy Minister for Farming and Food, Rebecca Evans said,

“I would like to congratulate the producers who have received EU PFN status for their products.

“We are proactively supporting Welsh producers to explore more opportunities to achieve a EU PFN or GI status. ‘Towards Sustainable Growth’, our food and drink action plan, commits us to work with businesses to fully exploit opportunities available to producers. I look forward to seeing more products achieving this status in the near future.”

Recent research shows the four Welsh PFN products have obtained significant value since attaining this status. All four show that their individual businesses have directly benefitted from using PFN status as a marketing tool for domestic markets and in particular helped when accessing new and retaining export markets. In addition, PFN provides legal protection against misuse, imitation and fraud.

The EU PFN scheme was introduced in Europe in 1993 to protect food and drink products on a geographical or recipe basis. PFNs encompass a diverse range of products. There are currently 1260 registered PFN’s across 27 different product classes with approximately 200 products in the application and/or publishing process. In Wales, there are currently 18 products at various stages in the PFN application pipeline including 7 products which are currently at the EU submission stage.