Pan-European War for Feta Cheese

By Sia Velinova, Boriana Semkova

On September 20, 2005, the Greek Foreign Affairs Ministry declared that it had instructed its diplomats to protect the feta cheese, a kind of soft white cheese, by using the European Union (EU) regulations. The decision was made after reports that Bulgarian companies have been illegally selling their own cheese under the feta brand. Feta is one of the twenty Greek cheese varieties granted the Protected Denomination of Origin (PDO) certificate. While Greece is moaning, others are triumphing. Denmark, France and Germany have been competing for exporting their own cheese under the feta brand and have been objecting to the registration of the brand at the EU court.

Annually, Greece exports 150,000 tonnes of feta cheese in the EU. The fact that feta cheese, with both Greek and Bulgarian registrations, has been confiscated by the Danish authorities does not necessarily mean that Bulgarian companies have acted against the provisions of the law. Bulgarian exporters, on their part, complain that Greek companies have been re-packaging Bulgarian cheese in Greece and then sell it in the EU under the feta brand. The feta cheese variety is a mixture of sheep and goat milk. Greece has been struggling for geographical protection of "feta" since 1994. The feta brand received certification for protected designation of origin in 1996 but the decision of the European Commission (EC) was annulled in 1999. Three years later, the EC made a decision to register the brand on condition that a cheese variety can be called feta only if it comes from definite regions in Greece.

It is not the first case of Greek campaign against Bulgarian firms because of illegal use of the feta brand. It is the Bulgarian producers who can also complain about unfair competition on part of Greek companies. The latter often sell cheese under the Bulgarian brined cheese brand.

A total 28 Bulgarian companies are currently certified to export in the EU but none of them would risk abuse of the feta brand, Dimitar Zorov, owner of one of the leading Bulgarian companies in the sector, said. It is easy to track the origin of a given product, exported in the EU and no Bulgarian company would risk its reputation, Zorov added.

A total 23 pct of the Bulgarian cheese and yellow cheese exports is destined to the Greek market. Many Greek and Turkish companies sell cheese under the Bulgarian brined cheese brand and on the label it is written that the cheese is produced in Greece or Turkey.

Yet, Bulgaria cannot file any objections against the use of the brined cheese brand as the brand has not received a protection certificate by the EC. During its negotiations with the EU, Bulgaria has demanded protection of 200 geographical names for its traditional products, among which the white brined cow cheese. Bulgarian will have the opportunity to protect its typical products only after the country joins the EU. Bulgarian cheese under the feta brand might be sold outside the EU but generally Bulgarian producers either sell under the brined cheese brand or under their own brand.

The United States and Lebanon are also among the major importers of the Bulgarian cheese and yellow cheese, followed by Australia, Germany and Macedonia. In 2004, the volume of total cheese and yellow cheese exports stood at 15,171 tonnes. The volume of Bulgarian cheese and yellow cheese exports totalled 7,471 tonnes over the first half of 2005. Exports of Bulgarian cheese and yellow cheese rose by some 7,000 tonnes in the last three years.