Farmers are not happy with this change at all. Features of the Geographical Indication of Turrón de Jijona and Turrón de Alicantein which removed any reference to the origin of raw materials Condemned by La Unió Llauradora, who was used in its preparation and feared that it would open a door increased use of almonds from other countries what is going on right now.
And the thing is, as paradoxical as it may seem, current regulations already allows the use of fruits from other latitudes -in fact California, the world’s largest producer of almonds – but now the specification refers to varieties produced in the Community of Valencia. A lost word.
To avoid this, one from La Unió opposition document To the changes introduced in the specifications published in the BOE on April 1, with the aim of maintaining the reference to local production and in any case the origin of raw materials.
“La Unió is aware of current regulations and does not directly recommend using almonds or honey from other countries, but if used, they will legally have to refer to the origin of the raw material on the labels not used, otherwise they will cause confusion among consumers”, assures the agricultural organization.
If it is a quality mark linking the product to its origin, as in the case of nougat (Jijona and Alicante), their managers say, “The raw material should have mainly come from here.“. And in case they are imported, inform the consumer referring to its origin on the label “so that he chooses to buy those nougat even if it is imported almonds or, conversely, that of nougat artisans using local almonds”.
With regard to almonds, the current specifications of the IGP del Turrón, with regard to the raw material, “these are varieties in regions characterized by almonds. temperate Mediterranean climateto be able to Coming from Alicante, Castellón and Valencia“. As they explained, The change they are aiming for now is to remove any reference to the Mediterranean region. and to the three provinces of the Valencian Community, a situation La Unió argues is that “the almonds used to make nougat with their respective modifications must come from production and processing areas located in different regions of Alicante, Castellon and Valencia”.
For La Unió it is important to maintain links that establish a direct relationship between the raw material used (mainly almonds and honey) and the producer, the production site and nougat. The disappearance of these natural ties in the text proposed for the organization “one more step to justify the use of almonds or honey from other parts of the worldwould not have been possible without these natural features of the environment, which assumed that the close ties between the characteristics of the product and its geographical origin were broken, thereby removing the originality and authenticity of the nougat”.
They recall from La Unió that this is not the first time the georeference of raw materials has been suppressed, and there have been several cases where it has been suggested since 2011.