28.12.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 320/17

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Publication of an application pursuant to Article 6(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs

(2006/C 320/09)

This publication confers the right to object to the application pursuant to Article 7 of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006. Statements of objection must reach the Commission within six months from the date of this publication.

SUMMARY

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 510/2006

Application for registration according to Article 5 and Article 17(2)

‘CAFÉ DE COLOMBIA’

EC No: CO/PGI/0467/08.06.2005

PDO ( ) PGI ( X )

This summary has been drawn up for information purposes only. For full details, interested parties are invited to consult the full version of the product specification obtainable from the national authorities indicated in section 1 or from the European Commission (1).

1.   Responsible department in the Third Country:

Name:	Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio de la República de Colombia
Address:	Carrera 13 no 27-00, Bogotá, Colombia
Telephone:	(57-1) 382 08 40
Fax:	(57-1) 382 26 95
E-mail:	info@sic.gov.co

2.   Applicant group:

Name:	Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia
Address:	Calle 73 no 8-13, Bogotá, Colombia
Telephone:	(57-1) 313 66 00
Fax:	(57-1) 217 21 90
E-mail:	propiedad.intelectual@cafedecolombia.com
Composition:	Producer/processor ( X ) Other categories ( )

3.   Type of product:

Class 1.8 (other products listed in Annex I to the Treaty): Coffee (Chapter 9 of Annex I to the Treaty).

4.   Specification (summary of requirements under Art.4 (2))

4.1.   Name: ‘Café de Colombia’.

4.2.   Description: ‘Café de Colombia’ is that coffee grown in the Columbian Coffee Growing Area defined in the specifications which satisfies the export standards laid down by the National Committee of Coffee Growers and which, when processed, has the following characteristics: mild, clean cup, of medium/high acidity and body and a full and pronounced aroma.

Only the Arabica species is grown in the Colombian Coffee Growing Area. The main coffee varieties or plants of the Arabica species cultivated in Colombia are known as Caturra, Típica, Borbón, Maragogipe, Tabi, Colón, San Bernardo and ‘Colombia’, now known as Castillo. Green and processed ‘Café de Colombia’ may consist of one or more of these types or varieties. Thus, only coffee presented to the consumer containing exclusively 100 % ‘Café de Colombia’, irrespective of its state (green or roasted), reproduces the abovementioned characteristics.

4.3.   Geographical area: The area is that located in the Republic of Colombia at 400 to 2 500 metres above sea level between the first parallel and 11°15' North and longitude 72° to 78° West.

In any event, it is to be noted that the geographical area does not encompass the whole territory of the Republic of Colombia.

4.4.   Proof of origin: Traceability of the product is carried out in the following stages:

Monitoring of producers. This is carried out using the Sistema de Información Cafetero (SICA) data base, and every single coffee plantation of the Colombian Coffee Growing Area and respective plots is supervised. This information-gathering system is part of the Plantation Administration data base.

Monitoring of parchment coffee and hulling. This is carried out by means of legal documents such as the ‘Guías de Tránsito’ and checking of purchases at the storage or hulling plants, which are subject to registration and operation requirements.

Monitoring of green coffee. Once it has gone through the hulling plants, which are duly registered in accordance with Decision No 1 of 2002 of the National Committee of Coffee Growers. The ‘Guías de Tránsito’, provided for in Colombian Decree 2685 of 1999, are still the legal document which must accompany each lot of coffee for export.

Monitoring of exports. Exporters are monitored, by means of the Guía de Tránsito, by both the customs authorities and ALMACAFÉ, the organisation entrusted to carry out such checks by the National Federation of Coffee Growers. There is also a register of exporters governed by Ministry of Foreign Trade Decision No 355 of 2002 for exporters who meet the conditions laid down in National Committee of Coffee Growers Decision No 3 of 2002. Likewise, ALMACAFÉ carries out final checks at port to ensure that the ‘Café de Colombia’ quality criteria are met.

Monitoring of roasted coffee. Roasting plants located in Colombia apply National Committee of Coffee Growers Decision No 1 of 2002 to the traceability of ‘Café de Colombia’. Roasted coffee is traced outside Colombia by means of best-practice agreements with foreign roasters and by various monitoring mechanisms such as the quality testing by checking and sampling from undertakings.

4.5.   Method of production: The product processing stages are: harvesting, beneficio and hulling:

Harvesting: fruit from the coffee plants is picked between 210 and 224 days after flowering, when it is ripening, ripe or overripe. It is selectively picked, essentially by hand, one bean at a time.

Beneficio: the process used for the coffee covered involves the use of water (‘wet process’) and is divided into the following stages: (1) pulp removal; (2) cleaning; (3) mucilage removal (fermentation); (4) washing, and (5) drying.

Hulling: the endocarp is separated from the dry parchment coffee in threshing machines to obtain green coffee, which is sorted by machine according to size, colour and density.

Roasting: not necessarily carried out in the geographical area, it consists in applying heat to green beans whose characteristics identify it as originating in the Colombian Coffee Growing Area, prior to preparing drinking coffee. This process brings out the organoleptic qualities (mild, clean cup, of medium/high acidity and body and a full and pronounced aroma) which are intrinsic to the green ‘Café de Colombia’ from the Colombian Coffee Growing Area.

4.6.   Link: The link is established by virtue of the following factors:

Geographical: the specific geographical location of the Colombian Coffee Growing Area, combined with climatic characteristics and the distinctive physical relief and soil, give ‘Café de Colombia’ its specific physical and organoleptic qualities.

Agroclimatic: the Colombian Coffee Growing Area is situated in an Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). This provides two harvesting possibilities or seasons a year and, together with the orography, gives rise to abundant and very distinctive rainfall. This rain in the Colombian Coffee Growing Area is also influenced by local circulations between the valleys and mountains. The fact that the ITCZ passes over the coffee-growing area twice, combined with the varied topography, means that there is an adequate quantity and distribution of rain throughout the year, with enough water to complete the crop's entire production cycle and guarantee year-round coffee harvests. For the abovementioned agroclimatic reasons, the Colombian Coffee Growing Area is characterised by the fact that it offers ‘fresh coffee throughout the year’.

Topographical: the Colombian Coffee Growing Area is situated on the slopes of the country's Andean mountain range, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de la Macarena. The effects of the climate (above all precipitation and temperature) and the topography, through the action of the weather, produces specific parent material and soils in terms of mineralogical composition and physico-chemical properties respectively. This gives rise to soils with a high nutrient level: low in acid and which retain moisture.

Harvesting: the fact that there is more than one harvest every year means that there can be green and mature beans on the same coffee plantation. This defines one of the essential characteristics of ‘Café de Colombia’, namely essentially selective hand-picking of the coffee bean by bean.

Other factors: historical, traditional, cultural and social, plus the prestige attaching to ‘Café de Colombia’.

This means that ‘Café de Colombia’ is acknowledged to be a coffee of quality whose green beans are characterised by its fresh aroma and an average moisture content of 10 to 12 %, and such characteristics are governed, for the purpose of exportation, by National Committee of Coffee Growers Decision No 5 of 2002 on the presentation of roasted coffee.

In short, the Colombian Coffee Growing Area is characterised by its production of coffee beans that produce a clean cup drink, of medium/high acidity and body and a full and pronounced aroma. These features and quality can be achieved by using the Arabica species of coffee, provided that a great deal of care is taken in husbanding the crops. Consequently, the quality of Colombian coffee also depends on the following common factors: the wet method of processing coffee described earlier, selective harvesting involving a significant amount of manual work, cultivation by long-established and skilled coffee growers, and the use of careful selection and classification processes. All the attributes of ‘Café de Colombia’ are due to the special characteristics of the Republic of Colombia in terms of soil quality, the typical climate of the country, specifically in the mountainous areas of the tropics, the height above sea level of the Colombian Coffee Growing Area, the similarity of sowing and harvesting processes and procedures, and the requirements it has to satisfy in order to be sold on the international market. The coffee owes its reputation, fame and excellence throughout the world to the sum of these factors, which are typical of and exclusive to the Colombian Coffee Growing Area and ‘Café de Colombia’.

The prestige and the reputation of ‘Café de Colombia’ is worthy of special mention. Thus, numerous acknowledgements from consumers, supported by statistics, show the high prestige and the excellent reputation which ‘Café de Colombia’ has attained. This is due to the efforts made by Colombian coffee growers and their product. To that end, the specifications are accompanied by evidence of advertising campaigns (stretching back to the 1960s) promoting ‘Café de Colombia’. This activity has generated, since then, many mentions in articles and column inches on ‘Café de Colombia’ in which it is referred to as a coffee of high quality and prestige. Finally, the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia has been unstinting in its efforts in pursuing, before the courts and the administrative authorities, the many attempts by others to appropriate and misuse the good name of ‘Café de Colombia’.

4.7.   Inspection body:

Name:	ALMACAFÉ
Address:	Calle 73 no 8-13 Piso 2B. Bogotá, Colombia
Telephone:	(57-1) 313 66 00
Fax:	(57-1) 212 85 40
E-mail:	informacion.calidades@almacafe.com.co

ALMACAFE fulfils the requirements and technical specifications laid down in the norm ISO 65.

4.8.   Labelling: The labels have the following features: Title: ‘P.G.I. CAFÉ DE COLOMBIA’.

4.9.   National requirements: Colombian domestic legislation. Andean Community Decision No 486.

Registration as D.O. in Colombia: Supervisory Authority for Industry and Trade Decision No 4819 of 4 March 2005.

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(1)  European Commission, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, Agricultural Product Quality Policy, B-1049 Brussels.

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