Certificate of protection of agricultural products and foodstuffs

Protected agricultural products and foodstuffs are the agricultural products and foodstuffs from quality schemes. According to the quality scheme, they are also designated with associated European and national trademarks.

The quality schemes in the Republic of Slovenia are the following:

• Protected designation of origin (European scheme) – all phases of production and processing must take place in the specific geographical area;
• protected geographical indication (European scheme) – at least one of the production phases of an agricultural product must take place in the specific geographical area;
• traditional speciality guaranteed (European scheme) – production is not restricted to the specific geographical area, meaning that the products may be produced throughout Slovenia and the European Union (if the European protection is acquired). These products are produced in the traditional way or from the traditional materials or according to the traditional recipe;
• higher quality; (national scheme) – an agricultural product or foodstuff positively deviates from other similar products and foodstuff in terms of its characteristics;
• organic production (national scheme) – an agricultural product or foodstuff is produced and processed according to natural methods and procedures;
• integrated production – an agricultural product is produced according to the methods using approved agro-technical measures in a regulated way;
• treats from our farms (national scheme – in the process of introduction) – it refers to the agricultural products and foodstuff produced or processed on the farm according to the recipes characteristic of agricultural products and by using the major part of own materials or materials from the local environment.

Before making a decision regarding the protection of agricultural products or foodstuffs, it is very important that an applicant or association of producers conducts a preliminary strategic analysis, on the basis of which it acquires general information on the rationale of the product certification procedure. All guidelines for the preparation of a preliminary strategic analysis for special agricultural products or foodstuff are available for the assistance.

An application for the protection of an agricultural product or foodstuff must be lodged with the competent authority. An application must be prepared in accordance with the instructions for the protection of a special agricultural product or foodstuff.

The protection of agricultural products or foodstuffs takes place in two phases. In the first phase, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment protects the name. In the second phase, the certification authority establishes the conformity and issues a certificate which is a proof of the authenticity of the products under the protected name.