It could still take up to six months for the European Commission to approve a protected geographical indicator (PGI), Tara McCarthy, CEO of Bord Bia has warned.

There has been much discussion about the PGI, but speaking at the ICMSA AGM via web link last Thursday, McCarthy explained that the “ball is in Europe’s court.”

“I’ll be very frank on this one, I would have loved it if PGI went in a lot faster,” McCarthy told the 120 farmers tuned into the webinar.

Northern Ireland

She said that they were hoping there would be no objections to their submission, but that it remained unclear what the situation in regard to the North of Ireland would be and that she knew the Minister for Agriculture was involved in discussions on that front.

She said that while Bord Bia was waiting for the PGI, it was still leveraging Ireland’s grass-fed production process and once the PGI was approved, it hoped to introduce it as quickly as possible.

North-south talks

Both agriculture ministers met last Thursday and discussed the PGI application among other issues.

This was followed on Tuesday by a meeting between the Livestock and Meat commission and Bord Bia to progress the development of the grass fed standard in Northern Ireland.

The Ulster Farmers Union, which had been threatening to oppose a PGI application if Northern Ireland wasn’t included, has noted an “improved constructive engagement in the past few days” and added that “Bord Bia have been more engaging” on defining the standard in Northern Ireland.