Next steps for the 4 specifications

After several years of appraisal, exchanges with producer groups and optimization of the specifications governing the product, they have today taken a crucial step towards recognition as a PGI: a favorable opinion from the INAO's dedicated national committee.
However, several steps will still be necessary for these dossiers before official European recognition. The specifications will then be submitted individually to a public consultation, the "national objection procedure" (PNO), for a period of 2 months. If there are no objections, the ministries in charge of agriculture and the economy will publish the specifications in the Journal officiel de la République française.
The dossiers for the four products will then be sent to the European Commission for examination for a maximum of 6 months (time for exchanges with the member state). At the end of this period, an opposition procedure will be launched at European level for all other member states or third countries for a period of 3 months. If there is no opposition, the European Commission will publish a registration regulation in the Official Journal of the European Union adding each new name to the European PGI register: the products will then benefit from PGI and EU-wide protection.

The four new products soon to be recognized as PGIs

• "Pérail" is a soft, round, flat cheese made with whole milk from Lacaune breed ewes. Milk production, manufacturing and ripening take place over most of Aveyron and part of the Gard, Hérault, Lozère and Tarn departments.
• "Cavaillon Melon" is a yellow Charentais type with orange flesh and a sweet taste. Cultivation and harvesting, as well as all sorting, grading and packaging operations, are carried out in the geographical area of the "Melon de Cavaillon" PGI, which covers 4 départements: Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Var.
• "Miel des Landes" is produced exclusively from honey harvested in apiaries located in the geographical area defined for the PGI. This corresponds to the Landes department extended to include communes in Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne, with a total of 538 communes. Miel des Landes" can be monofloral (acacia, arbutus, bourdaine, heather, callune or chestnut) or polyfloral.
• "Caviar d'Aquitaine" is caviar made from the eggs of sturgeon of the species Acipenser baerii baerii, raised in fish farms. It has notes of butter, fresh cream and nuts. Fry production, sturgeon rearing and slaughtering, and caviar processing and packaging all take place within the PGI geographical area, in the Gironde, Landes and Lot-et-Garonne départements, and in certain communes of Charente, Charente-Maritime, Dordogne, Gers and Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

_{Note: editorial adjustments to the "Caviar d'Aquitaine" and "Melon de Cavaillon" specifications were introduced at the meeting and will be submitted to applicant groups before the national opposition procedure is implemented.}