Less than half the world's Havarti is made in Denmark. Other major producers include the United States and Canada and it is also made in Australia,New Zealand and European nations such as Germany.
The use of"protected geographical indications (GI)"by the EU,which identify a product as originating from a specific place,continues to anger food producers around the world who claim some of them are wrongly applied to generic foods as a protectionist measure.
Dairy associations from Australia,New Zealand,Argentina,Uruguay and the US,together with the Consortium for Common Food Names,wrote to EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström on Thursday night expressing outrage at the"disregard of established international standards and protocols for fair trade".
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"Such an approval lays bare the fact that all too often the EU GI system is used not for legitimate intellectual property protection,but instead for barely concealed protectionism and economic gain,"the letter says.
A creamy,semi-hard cheese,Havarti has become a staple in Danish cuisine and was traditionally made from the milk of Danish cows. Denmark has faced a four-year battle to gain recognition for Havarti,arguing the vast majority of its population associate it with the country and knowledge of the cheese outside is"extremely limited".
But the international group argues Havarti does not refer to any geographic region in Denmark,and most Havarti cheese is produced in other countries,including by Danish company Arla Foods in the US from American dairy cows.