Geographical Indication registrations in Turkey have increased in recent years. What is the reason for it?
The purpose of the geographical indication is to contribute to rural development. Since a geographical indication is an indication that a product is produced by traditional methods or that an agricultural product bears the unique characteristics of that region, it is known that the consumer tends to prefer this geographically indicated product and even pay more for it. And, this makes the geographical indication attractive for the producers. The fact that geographical indication registration has turned into a service competition between municipalities and chambers of commerce in recent years also contributes to the development of the system. The most important service would be to create systems that can carry what we inherited from our ancestors to future generations by raising awareness in society about the purpose of the geographical indication.
One of the important contributions of the Industrial Property Law, which entered into force at the beginning of 2017, is the audit system brought to geographical indications. Thanks to this system, it has become compulsory to audit the geographical indication and the companies in its supply chain every year; for example, pistachios are the essential ingredient for Antep Baklava and they must be grown in Antep. With the new law, the pistachio manufacturer in the supply chain of the baklava has to also be audited. This reinforces consumers’ confidence in the geographical indication and encourages producers.

Antep Baklava
Another advantage of the new law in geographical indications is that it allows a product that was registered many years ago to be updated. Producing certain geographical indications, whose standards, production method, or cultivation method were registered many years ago, may not be possible due to the changes in developing technology, soil structure, or climate. With the update of the geographical indication, the products become reproducible and become advantageous to the owner and manufacturers with new production systems as a product that maintains its characteristics, e.g. Çubuk Pickle.

Çubuk Pickle; updated with Bulletin no.54 dated 10.06.2019
With the new law, it exists a new registration type called Traditional Speciality Guaranteed, and I think that most of the products that we registered as food types in the past are within the scope of the Traditional Speciality Guaranteed. Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) highlights the traditional aspects such as the way the product is made or its composition, without being linked to a specific geographical area. The name of a product being registered as a TSG protects it against falsification and misuse.

Çakallı Menemeni; registered as TSG in 2020