To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what steps he is taking to encourage British producers to make use of the European Union protected food name scheme; (99225)

The European Union (EU) protected food name scheme provides farmers and producers with a way in which to add value to their product and meet consumers’ demand for more regional and local food. Under DEFRA's Regional Food Strategy, we have tasked Food from Britain with working with the Regional Food Groups and producers to raise awareness of the scheme and encourage more applications.

Over the last two years DEFRA has written to a large number of trade associations and producers to remind them of the economic benefits to producers of achieving protected name status, and held positive meetings with a number of key organisations including the National Farmers' Union, the Country Land and Business Association, the English Beef and Lamb Executive, the British Pig Association and the Milk Development Council to discuss possible applications.

We have also commissioned research which can be found at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodrin/foodname/research/pdf/adasresearchpdo.pdf.

This research aimed to determine the awareness, perception, and attitudes towards, the EU protected food name schemes among UK retailers. I am pleased to say that all this effort is yielding some positive results. In addition to the 36 UK products which have been registered so far, a further nine applications have been submitted to the European Commission with 20 more at the UK stage of the application process.