Altia says adopting Estonian Vodka as geographical indication not grounded

Photo: SCANPIX

Altia Eesti, Estonian operation of the Finnish alcohol maker Altia, says there are no grounds to register Estonian Vodka as a geographical indication since vodka of Estonian origin cannot be set apart from other vodkas.

«The vodka producers that now produce almost 100 percent of Estonian vodka do not see registration of the said indication as grounded and clearly necessary. Primarily because traditional Estonian vodka historically has no very special properties compared with the vodkas of other countries, based on which the indication should and could be registered,» Altia Eesti manager Kristel Mets told BNS.

«The special commission at the Ministry of Agriculture made a just decision to not endorse the Estonian Vodka technical file in that form. The file was, on the one hand, very restrictive and creating a monopoly status for one company, while on the other hand it was very vague in describing the special properties of Estonian vodka,» Mets said.

Should the geographical indication be registered, Altia isn't planning to set up a distillery in Estonia. «Altia has a state-of-the-art spirits distillery in Finland and registration of the indication of Estonian vodka will not affect Altia's investment decisions and plans for enlargement,» Mets said.

An expert commission at the Estonian Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday agreed that vodka bearing the geographical indication Estonian Vodka must be made from raw material produced in Estonia but wanted its other properties to be set out more precisely before the technical file can be endorsed.

What needs to be better defined is mostly details, such as the cereal species that can serve as raw material and the quality indicators of the end product, Sven Ivanov, board member of the company Estonian Spirit OU, told BNS Thursday evening.

Estonian Spirit OU filed an application with the Ministry of Agriculture at the beginning of this year to register Estonian Vodka as a geographical indication. A joint objection to the application was filed by the alcoholic beverage makers AS Liviko, AS Remedia and Altia Eesti AS.

To review the application and the opinions, the minister of agriculture set up an advisory commission. On Thursday the commission made a proposal to the minister to not satisfy the application as the geographical indication needs to be better defined.

«In general, we can be satisfied with the commission's decision, as an important step forward has been made toward it that Estonian vodka was produced from Estonian raw material,» Ivanov said, adding that the Estonian definition could be finalized in three months.

The commission agreed with the stance of Estonian Spirit OU that vodka bearing the geographical indication Estonian Vodka must be made from ethyl alcohol made from Estonian raw material and water of Estonian origin.

«At the same time, the technical file needs to be made more specific so that the characteristics of Estonian Vodka were more clearly brought out,» said Illar Lemetti, chairman of the advisory commission. «Such as by setting out the properties of the ethyl alcohol used for the production of the vodka, as well as the organoleptic properties characteristics of the vodka,» he added.

The European Parliament and Council enforced a new regulation on spirit drinks in May 2008 which lists Estonian Vodka as a protected geographical indication alongside the geographical indications for the vodka of Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. For all the registered geographical indications, the member states must present a technical file by Feb. 20, 2015 the latest. If a technical file is not been presented by the deadline the indication for that country will be removed from the annex to the regulation.