According to the accepted application, the Cambodian pepper, known as Kampot pepper or poivre de Kampot, is characterised by its strong but not ‘burning’ pungency that develops progressively in the mouth. The pepper berries must also be harvested, dried, soaked and pickled in a specific way.
The packaging of any product containing the pepper can be written in Khmer accompanied by its official translation into a European language and the PGI logo if it has been prepared in this way and grown in certain districts of southern Cambodia.
A spokesperson for the European Commission told FoodNavigator:“The EU Quality Scheme is by no means a restricted scheme for the EU producers, but is open to producers from third countries as long as they satisfy the conditions of the referenced regulation. At the moment, there are 25 names from different third countries registered under the EU Quality Scheme.”
A Turkish food, a dried fig from the province of Aydin, was also granted protected designation of origin (PDO) for the second time. There are now 23 food and agricultural products from non-EU countries to have protected origin status.
White asparagus from the the North Brabant region in the Netherlands and red French apricots from Roussillon also received PDO while Croatian dried ham and Spanish cured tuna loin were granted PGIs.
The full list of protected products can be seen here.