Description
"Mountain product" is an optional quality indication, established by Art. 31 of Regulation (EU) No. 1151/2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs, to improve the marketing of mountain products and to communicate the provenance and characteristics of these products to consumers.
The optional quality indication "mountain product" is only used to identify products for human consumption listed in Annex I of the EU Treaty for which both raw materials and animal feedstuffs come essentially from mountain areas and, in the case of processed products, processing also takes place in mountain areas.
Mountain areas are defined as areas located in municipalities classified as totally mountainous and partially mountainous, as referred to in Article 32(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013, and indicated in the Rural Development Programmes of the respective regions.
The Decree of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry No. 57167 of 26 July 2017 regulates the conditions of use of the optional quality indication "mountain product" and the granting of derogations for certain processing operations carried out outside the mountain area.
Operators intending to use the optional quality indication 'mountain product' must comply with the provisions of the aforementioned Ministerial Decree and send a communication, within thirty days of the start of production of the mountain product, using one of the following models
- Model A (to be sent to the Region, in the case of a simple communication)
- Model B (to be sent to the Region and to MASAF, in the case of communication with derogation).
In implementation of Ministerial Decree No. 57167 of 26 July 2017, the indications defined by the Ministerial Decree of 2 August 2018 "Establishment of the identification logo for the optional quality indication "mountain product"" must be followed.