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Geographical Indicators

What is Champagne? . Champagne, a sparkling wine, comes from the Champagne region of France. Champagne has produced sparkling wine since the days of the Roman empire, and still bottles some of the best vintages in the world. (www.cnn.com/FOOD/specials/1999/champagne). What is feta cheese?.

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Geographical Indicators

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    1. Geographical Indicators Daniel Pick Economic Research Service

    2. What is Champagne? Champagne, a sparkling wine, comes from the Champagne region of France. Champagne has produced sparkling wine since the days of the Roman empire, and still bottles some of the best vintages in the world. (www.cnn.com/FOOD/specials/1999/champagne)

    3. What is feta cheese? Feta is a classic and famous Greek curd cheese whose tradition dates back thousands of years. Strictly speaking, real feta cheese is produced exclusively in Greece. (www.greekproducts.com).

    4. What do these commodities have in common? Both are associated with a particular region or country… but, these products are produced in other countries as well Each has a generic name The EU proposed a list of GIs to be protected in the WTO trade negotiations

    5. Today’s discussion A closer look at GIs The economics around GIs Policies used Existing studies Governments’ role

    6. What is a Geographical Indicator (GI)? “Indicators which identify a good as originating in the territory of a Member, or a region or locality in that Territory, where a given quality, reputation, or other charac- teristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin” --Article 22 of the TRIP Agreement

    7. Why the interest in GI? Geographical indicators provide the opportunity to: Differentiate a product Create market power (financial opportunity) Have government policy intervention Transfer income (rural development)

    8. What is the economic ‘justification’ for GI? The rationale behind GI is: Market failure: Consumers can't distinguish between qualities Information failure: Consumers are not informed. Suboptimal equilibrium resulting from information failure may be improved through various institutions: Warranties Certification Signaling and reputation

    9. Three types of goods: The economic literature differentiates between three types of goods depending on how their quality characteristics are identified: Search goods Experience goods Credence goods

    10. Types of policies Policies instituted to help consumers identify the quality characteristics of a product: U.S. Certification EU PDO and PGI Protection of Designations of Origin (PDO) Protection of Geographical Indication (PGI)

    11. Types of policies, cont’d EU policy to protect specific agricultural commodities Protection is based on geographical origin Regulation No. 2081/92 on the protection of PGI and PDO

    12. Purpose of Regulation No. 2081/92 To recognize, protect, and foster trade among Member States of PGI and PDO products to secure higher income for farmers in return for improved quality Hundreds of products are covered under this regulation

    13. PDO and PGI brand names by product class

    14. Approved PDO and PGI brand names in the EU

    15. Existing studies Loureiro & McCluskey (2000) Consumers’ willingness to pay for PGI labeling Galician veal in Spain PGI label effective in high quality meat only Bonnet & Simioni (2001) Consumer response to PDO labeling Camembert cheese Consumers do not seem to value PDO label

    16. Existing studies, cont’d Zago & Pick (2004) The regulation creates two goods High quality good under the regulation Low quality good not included in the program

    17. Existing studies, cont’d Results from Zago & Pick: If administrative costs are high, quality differences small, and costs differences high then we can obtain negative welfare effects With supply restrictions, after the regulation, the higher the quality differences, the larger the negative impact on consumers’ surplus and the larger positive impact on high-quality producers

    18. Existing studies, cont’d Results from Zago & Pick (cont’d): Effects of the regulation depend on: Difference in quality Costs of producing the quality Cost of administration

    19. What is the government role? Several costs and benefits are associated with labeling policies (Gardner 2003): Benefits: Protection of consumers from low quality products Reducing consumers’ search costs Reduction of sellers’ costs by having uniform labeling requirements Gains to producers of ‘high quality’ products

    20. What is the government role? cont’d Costs: Exclusion of ‘low quality’ products Possible barrier to food innovation Sellers’ increased costs of labeling Government costs of implementation Creation of market power

    21. The bottom line The welfare effects of PDO and PGI must be evaluated on a case-by-case Providing blanket policy is not necessarily optimal Market distortions may be created by the policy

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