Publication of an amendment application pursuant to Article 50(2)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs

2013/C 179/07

This publication confers the right to oppose the amendment application, pursuant to Article 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (1).

AMENDMENT APPLICATION

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 510/2006

on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs  (2)

AMENDMENT APPLICATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLE 9

‘MELOCOTÓN DE CALANDA’

EC No: ES-PDO-0105-0103-28.02.2011

PGI ( ) PDO ( X )

1.   Heading in the specification affected by the amendment

2.   Type of amendment

3.   Amendment(s)

3.1.   Description of product

Colour: the description has been amended to allow for fruit with a red blush. This is a result of developments and improvements in the customary agricultural practices, when varieties covered by the Designation of Origin are grafted onto plum rootstock, and some of the fruit, when ripening, develops a red blush. This does not affect the quality of the product and cannot be considered a negative attribute in any way, so it was felt that the description should be rendered more complete by including this detail, i.e. that the fruit may have a red bloom.

Hardness: the limits established for the hardness of the fruit have been amended. A minimum of 3 kg/0,5 cm2 for resistance to pressure has been set and the maximum has been deleted. These changes were made following the examination of data obtained by the Consejo Regulador, after 10 years of quality control of the different varieties accepted for production of ‘Melocotón de Calanda’. Taking the diverse characteristics of these varieties into account, it was found that the combination of all the established quality parameters (hardness, sugar content and size) was such that variations in the hardness limits could be accepted, without affecting the quality of the product. Some varieties have a slightly lower hardness value, but this does not mean that the product is impaired, as these are the most sought after by customers in certain European countries and, likewise, some varieties may exceed the set maximum of 5,5. kg/0,5 cm2 resistance, although they are not unripe, as it is the sugar content that will determine their quality.

3.2.   Proof of origin

The references to the Consejo Regulador have been deleted from the second paragraph.

The third paragraph has been deleted and the fourth paragraph amended in order to bring the text into line with standard UNE-EN 45011 as required by the certification programme of the Consejo Regulador, the inspection body accredited by ENAC (the national accreditation body) in 2010.

3.3.   Method of production

The reference to the Consejo Regulador in the paragraph on Provenance of the fruit has been deleted.

Thinning: this has to be completed by a certain date (i.e. there is a deadline) but the requirement that it be done during a specific period has been deleted. Bagging: the minimum period of 9 weeks has been deleted, as this has to start by a certain date because of the deadline for thinning. This amendment needed to be made because climate change, the move from family farms to larger orchards and developments in growing techniques are affecting traditional customs and the thinning and bagging work may now be done later. Both tasks are part of good agricultural practice and requiring the work to be done during a specific period does not guarantee the final quality of the product covered by the PDO.

Harvesting, delivery and temporary storage: the requirements regarding the checks to be carried out on the product laid down in section B of the Specification have been maintained and the stage at which these checks are performed has been clarified, as the previous text could have been misleading. The hardness and sugar content cannot be measured in optimal conditions in the orchard (harvesting stage).

Packaging: this section has been amended so that, given the variety of packaging options available, the product can be marketed in packaging holding one or several layers, provided that it is not impaired and the packaging or trays are used once only.

The following phrase, which was previously in section (B) has been added: ‘The product must be prepared and packed in the area where it is produced’.

Finally, the last paragraph concerning certification has been deleted, as it does not belong in this section, and moved to the relevant section (section D).

3.4.   Labelling

In the first paragraph, the word ‘label’ has been replaced by ‘secondary label’ when referring to the numbered label and the references to the Consejo Regulador have been deleted.

The second paragraph has also been deleted.

3.5.   National requirements

This section has been updated to take account of national legislation published since the Specification was initially approved.

3.6.   Other

Section G (Inspection body) has been brought into line with current legislation, as the previous text contained references to obsolete legislation and the structure of the Consejo Regulador was not accurately described. The text has also been amended to include the inspection body's new address.

SINGLE DOCUMENT

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 510/2006

on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs  (3)

‘MELOCOTÓN DE CALANDA’

EC No: ES-PDO-0105-0103-28.02.2011

PGI ( ) PDO ( X )

1.   Title

‘Melocotón de Calanda’

2.   Member State or third country

Spain

3.   Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff

3.1.   Type of product

3.2.   Description of product to which the name in (1) applies

‘Melocotón de Calanda’ is the fresh fruit of the species Prunus persica Sieb. and Zucc. from the indigenous variety known as ‘Amarillo tardío’ (late yellow) and its selected clones Jesca, Evaisa and Calante, obtained by the traditional technique of bagging the fruit on the tree.

Protected varieties — Peaches protected by the Designation of Origin ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ must come only from the area's indigenous variety, commonly known as ‧Amarillo tardío‧ and its selected clones Jesca, Evaisa and Calante.

Characteristics of the product — Peaches covered by the Designation of Origin ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ must be of ‘Extra’ class or Class I as specified in the quality standard for peaches laid down in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 of 21 December 2007 laying down implementing rules of Council Regulations (EC) No 2200/96, (EC) No 2201/96 and (EC) No 1182/2007 in the fruit and vegetable sector, and must also meet the following requirements:

3.3.   Raw materials (for processed products only)

—

3.4.   Feed (for products of animal origin only)

—

3.5.   Specific steps in production that must take place in the defined geographical area

All the steps in production must take place in the defined geographical area

3.6.   Specific rules concerning slicing, grating, packaging, etc.

The product must be prepared and packed within the production area, in order to prevent it being impaired by excessive handling or by transport when it has not been properly prepared and packed. In addition, because ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ is a fruit that has been carefully cared for on the tree by bagging, and is picked when it reaches the degree of ripeness at which the organoleptic quality characteristics are at their best, any additional transport or storage operations could adversely affect the general appearance or colour described in point 3.2.

Therefore, packing in the production area is necessary in order to maintain the product's specific characteristics and safeguard its quality, and at the same time guarantee traceability and the origin of the product via a single system of control until dispatch to the final consumer.

‘Melocotón de Calanda’ may be marketed in packaging with one or several layers provided that there is no risk of the fruit being impaired. The packaging or trays may only be used once.

3.7.   Specific rules concerning labelling

The preparation and packing centres which have obtained the certificate of conformity, must include the words ‘Denominación de Origen “Melocotón de Calanda”’ on the packaging labels next to the numbered secondary label, which acts as a certificate and enables the product to be traced when marketed.

4.   Concise definition of the geographical area

The production area for PDO ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ is the geographical district located in the east of the Autonomous Community of Aragón between the provinces of Teruel and Zaragoza.

The defined area comprises the following municipalities:

Aguaviva, Albalate del Arzobispo, Alcañiz, Alcorisa, Alloza, Andorra, Arens de Lledó, Ariño, Berge, Calaceite, Calanda, Caspe, Castelserás, Castelnou, Castellote, Chiprana, Cretas, Escatrón, Fabara, Fayón, Foz-Calanda, Fuentespalda, Híjar, Jatiel, La Fresneda, La Ginebrosa, La Puebla de Híjar, Lledó, Maella, Más de las Matas, Mazaleón, Mequinenza, Molinos, Nonaspe, Oliete, Parras de Castellote, Samper de Calanda, Sástago, Seno, Torre de Compte, Urrea de Gaén, Valderrobres, Valdeltormo and Valjunquera.

5.   Link with the geographical area

5.1.   Specificity of the geographical area

Historical link: the varieties authorised for ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ production are indigenous to the production area, obtained by natural selection with the intervention of the growers, who over time have selected those clones which adapted best to the area's geographical conditions. Medieval documents show that in Aragón peaches were known as presec or prisco as they are still called in the Calanda area. In 1895 the botanist J. Pardo Sastrón published an important work documenting the abundance of peach trees in the area and the fact that orejones (slices of sundried peach) were sent from Calanda to the Paris Exhibition in 1867. The importance of peaches in this part of Teruel and the production of orejones are also mentioned in the 1933 edition of the Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada Espasa Calpe, under the entry Calanda. Official statistics for 1953 show that Calanda's canning industry processed 4 000 boxes of local peaches into peaches in syrup.

Historical accounts show that the name ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ started to become established in the 1940s, and as the crop was becoming more important and there were problems combating the Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata), the growers started bagging the fruit to protect it from infestation. Fruit industry publications of the 1960s began mentioning ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ and in the 1970s ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ won a number of prizes in successive years at the National Agricultural Fair in Lerida. At the beginning of the 1980s it was first suggested that ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ should be protected as a Designation of Origin and in the statistics of the main national markets, such as Mercamadrid and Mercabarna, the fruit started to be identified by its geographical name.

Natural link: the area where ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ is grown occupies the fluvial valleys of the rivers Martín, Guadalope and Matarraña which drain into the Ebro in the region known as Bajo Aragón from the foothills of the Iberian System. The area is thus in the south-eastern part of the Ebro Depression.

The land is flat or slightly undulating, with an altitude ranging from 122 m at Caspe to 325 m at Alcañiz and 466 m at Calanda. The relief is predominantly tabular, dissected to a varying degree by river networks. The soil is calcareous (limy) with carbonate and gypsum formations, characteristic of lake sedimentation in the hot, dry climate of the Miocene epoch.

Average annual rainfall ranges from 327,9. mm in Caspe to 361,1 mm in Albalate del Arzobispo to 367,9 in Alcañiz. May and October are the wettest months and the rainfall distribution across the seasons is as follows: spring 27 %, summer 20 %, autumn 34 % and winter 19 %.

The average annual temperature is around 14,3 °C in Albalate del Arzobispo and Alcañiz and 15 °C in Caspe; these are the highest values for the central Ebro valley. The average maximum temperature is 19,9 °C in Alcañiz, 20,1 °C in Albalate del Arzobispo and 20,6 °C in Caspe, and the average minimum 8,8 °C, 8,5 °C and 9,3 °C respectively. The highest average temperature is in July with 24,2 °C in Alcañiz and 25,1 °C in Caspe, while the lowest is in January, ranging from 5,6 °C in Alcañiz and 6,7 °C in Albalate de Arzobispo. This data shows that the annual temperature amplitude is high, more than 18 °C, indicating continentalisation that is basically due to the area's position in the centre of the Ebro Depression.

From March to October maximum temperatures may exceed 25 °C, although this is more common from May, when the temperature exceeds this figure for over half the month, and October, when this figure is reached on 5 to 10 days. In summer daytime temperatures are over 25 °C and the average maximum is over 35 °C (in July it is 37,2 °C in Albalate and Alcañiz, and 38,3 °C in Caspe).

Another characteristic of the region's climate is ‘temperature inversion’. In winter, when there are anticyclones, the cold air settles in the lower layers and forms prolonged cold fogs with maximum temperatures lower than 6 °C, while in the higher areas, free of fog, maximum temperatures reach over 15 °C.

5.2.   Specificity of the product

Growing conditions: the morphological and variety identification characteristics according to the standards laid down by the International Union for the Protection of New of Plants (U.P.O.V.) are very similar in all the clones. Differences have been detected regarding health, productivity and size and shape of the fruit, which in 1980 resulted in a process of clonal selection to improve these characteristics. Other characteristics of these clones are the late ripening period, from the end of September to early November, the yellow colour and the hardness of the flesh.

If the clones are sorted by ripening period, the following groups appear:

As regards physiology, the ‘Amarillo Tardio’ population variety comprises clones which need long hours of chilling to break winter dormancy. They need a minimum of 1 000 hours a year, and a long summer period to complete ripening, as they have a very long cycle.

According to U.P.O.V. guidelines its morphological characteristics are as follows:

5.3.   Causal link between the geographical area and the quality or characteristics of the product (for PDO) or a specific quality, the reputation or other characteristic of the product (for PGI)

For woody crops, the effects of climatic conditions on the quality of the fruit are well known (the notion of terroir). Weather patterns in certain areas and contrasting annual differences in the same location, show that climate plays a very important role in determining the quality of a crop.

It is mainly temperature which determines the level of the main organoleptic elements in the fruit. In principle, except in extreme conditions, temperature has more influence on peach production than rainfall (water deficit), because most of the peach orchards (95 %) are irrigated.

The main climatic factors that have favoured the development and subsequent cultivation of indigenous late-ripening peach varieties in Bajo Aragón include the winter temperatures in the defined area, which give these very demanding varieties the chilling hours (CH) they need to break dormancy (from the time when the leaves fall until just before flowering).

As regards physiology, the ‘Amarillo Tardio’ population variety comprises clones which need long hours of chilling to break winter dormancy (a minimum of 1 000 hours/year).

In Bajo Aragón the chilling hours accumulated during November, December and January amply meet the maximum requirement established for the crop: minimum values in the area exceed 950 chilling hours.

In addition, temperatures during blossoming and setting of the fruit should not fall too far below zero for normal development of the flower buds and therefore, the number of fruit, as the potential size of the fruit is directly linked to temperature after flowering, and more specifically the temperatures prevailing from full bloom (F2) to F2 + 40 days. It has been clearly demonstrated (Warringon et al. 1999) that cell growth is eight times higher where maximum/minimum temperatures increase from 9/3 °C to 25/15 °C. But if the weather is cold, there are fewer cells and they are smaller, which will limit the final size of the fruit.

Another important factor is having the right temperatures throughout the cycle, especially in September and October so that the vegetative and reproductive cycle of these varieties can be completed.

In Bajo Aragón maximum temperatures exceed 25 °C from March to October, and are most frequently recorded from May, when the temperature exceeds this figure for over half the month, to October, when this figure is reached on 5 to 10 days. In summer, daytime temperatures are over 25 °C and the average maximum is over 35 °C (in July it is 37,2 °C in Albalate and Alcañiz, and 38,3 °C in Caspe).

The temperatures during the year in the geographical area studied allow the ‧Tardío amarillo de Calanda‧ peach trees, which have a long cycle, to complete their vegetative and reproductive activity.

Therefore, while the winter temperatures give the trees the number of chilling hours they need to break dormancy, the warm weather during the vegetative activity cycle (March to November) means that these varieties produce very high quality fruit.

The results of an evaluation test of selected clones of the population variety ‧Tardíos amarillos de Calanda‧ (Jesca, Calante and Evaisa) carried out on an experimental farm belonging to the Government of Aragón in Alcañiz (one of the municipalities with the greatest number of peach trees in the defined area), show that in the area of origin, during a four-year period (2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004) fruit were produced which had more than 14 °Brix and were large and firm, these being the most outstanding characteristics of these peaches.

The plant material authorised for the production of PDO ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ belongs to the population variety ‘Tardío amarillo’.

This population is indigenous to the production area and has been obtained over the centuries, initially by natural selection of trees grown from the stones of fruit from the trees which had the best agronomic characteristics. Then, over time, the growers propagated those which adapted best to the area's soil and climatic conditions, creating an authentic ‘population variety’.

In 1980 work on ‘Tardío amarillo’ clonal and health selection began, carried out by the Aragonese Government's Servicios de Investigación Agraria y Extensión Agraria, with a view to improving quality and standardising the product marketed as ‘Melocotón de Calanda’. Thus, in the ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ production area researchers sought out the clones that best represented the ‘Tardíos amarillos’ population variety and had the best agronomic characteristics and produced the best quality fruit (Espada et al., 1991). As a result of this initial selection the following varieties were registered and protected by the Oficina Española de Variedades Vegetales (Ministry of Agriculture): ‘Jesca’ (Registration No: 1989/2450), ‘Calante’ (Registration No: 1989/2447) and ‘Evaisa’ (Registration No: 1989/2449), which currently form the basis for PDO ‘Melocotón de Calanda’ production.

CONCLUSION: The population variety ‘Tardíos amarillos de Calanda’ and its selected clones are the result of their adaptation to the environment in which they originated.

Publication reference of the specification

(Article 5(7) of Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 (4))

http://www.aragon.es/estaticos/GobiernoAragon/Departamentos/AgriculturaGanaderiaMedioAmbiente/AgriculturaGanaderia/Areas/08_Calidad_Agroalimentaria/02_Alimentos_calidad_diferenciada/pliegodecondicionesMelocotondeCalanda.pdf

(1)  OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, p. 1.

(2)  OJ L 93, 31.3.2006, p. 12. Replaced by Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012.

(3)  Replaced by Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012.

(4)  See footnote 3.