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Ministry of Agriculture: 11 counties in Romania without any traditional products
Harsh attestation conditions for traditional food, which came into force in 2013, reduced the number of such products seven times. 11 counties in Romania have no traditional products attested by authorities, according to data supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR).
Only 524 products were considered traditional, seven times fewer than three years ago, when 4,000 were authorised.
Over half of traditional Romanian products come from Brasov, Maramures and Alba counties. Brasov is the champion of cheese with 159 authorised products, Maramures is famous for smoked meat and plum brandy with 64 traditional products and Alba is best for bakery products with 46 attested products.
The top of counties with traditional products is completed by Arges county with 34 attested products, Satu Mare (26), Botosani (23), Covasna (20), Buzau (15), Bucharest (14) and Suceava (13).
The eleven counties without traditional products are Caras Severin, Calarasi, Constanta, Dolj, Giurgiu, Gorj, Ialomita, Mehedinti, Teleorman and Vrancea.
The number of those products dropped considerably when producers had to prove, according to new regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture, the age of the recipe, had to eliminate all chemicals and had to use rudimentary, not modern tools.
“249 attestation requests for traditional products have been rejected as of 2013”, the source says.
Traditional products are recognised only at national level, rules being much harsher in the EU market. Compared to other countries like Italy, France, Spain,Portugal or Greece, which have registered over 100 products, Romania ranks last in Europe.
Romania has now only three products which obtained the Protected Geographical Indication in EU - Topoloveni Plum Jam, Ibanesti cheese and Sibiu Salami.