PDO Campaign Reaches Successful End

The aim of the non-profit consortiums’ was to protect, promote and enhance their products, and one illustration of this can be seen on their packaging: consumers of Prosciutto di San Daniele can clearly find out where the pig was born, reared and slaughtered and the meat produced, while marks on Grana Padano packages allow consumers to learn of the farm that the cheese’s milk was supplied from.

The campaign was launched in order to raise awareness of the quality, traceability and authenticity of their PDO products within the UK. The popularity of both has increased year-on-year as a result of the large marketing budget available for advertising, public relations and in-store promotions. Prosciutto di San Daniele witnessed increases of 27% in 2010, 28% in 2011 and 29% in 2012 and has gained places on the shelves of Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges among many others.

Mario Cichetti, CEO for the Consortium of Prosciutto di San Daniele said, “This growth in demand for PDO products acknowledges the importance that UK consumers place on traceability and authenticity of food products, especially in light of the challenges that the food industry has faced in regards t these issues over the past year. Consumers want to know that the products that they are buying are of the highest quality and are from producers that they can trust.”

Grana Padano has also shown a growth, with the mature UK market experiencing an increase of 0.54% from 2011 to 2012 and Britain now being listed as the fifth largest importer of the cheese in the world. Mr Nicola Baldrighi, president of the Consortium for the Protection of Grana Padano Cheese said, “We are delighted with the results of the PDO ‘Taste of Origin and Tradition’ campaign. The EU invested in the programme with two clear objectives: firstly, to improve the understanding of the PDO logo and its meaning among retail operators, media and consumers and secondly, to stimulate demand for PDO products, aiming to increase exports to the United Kingdom. The initial results of the campaign show that we are well on our way to meeting these objectives.”