Russian company sells Georgian Sulguni cheese in Europe

The Ministry of Agriculture discovered counterfeit Sulguni cheese in Italy and Bulgaria, the deputy head of the Food Safety Agency, Tengiz Kalandadze, told eugeorgia.info.

Kalandadze states that Georgian cheese packaged by a Russian company in Europe was found on the internet.

Sulguni is registered as a Georgian geographical indication, therefore, its production in other countries is considered to be counterfeiting.

The EU Association agreed on the protection of products originating from a certain geographic area, however, the list does not include Sulguni and are not able to take the proper actions.

“The agreement between Georgian and the EU on the protection of geographical indications of agricultural and other food products was signed in 2010, at the National Intellectual Property Center, Sakpatenti registered Sulguni in 2012. We are working on resolving this issue, it has already been held at the joint committee meeting and, along with Georgian cheese, we will also add other recently registered products to the list. However, the document needs to be ratified by the Parliament,” the Chairman of Sakpatenti, Nikoloz Gogiladze, told eugeorgia.info