In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the protection of domestic products remains inadequate, despite the country’s long tradition of agricultural and food production.
More adequate protection would enable better market placement and recognition through a geographical indication label, which attributes certain standards, reputation, and other characteristics of goods to their origin.
The BiH Food Safety Agency has registered 20 products with protected origin. However, there is no online registry by the Institute for Intellectual Property of BiH that would provide the number of protected products. There is also no research on public awareness of geographical indication labels.
Lawyer Harun Lozo studied the consumer recognition of geographical indications in BiH as part of his doctoral dissertation. He noted that, to date, he has only observed geographical indications on Livno cheese products.
At the end of last year, Livno cheese met all the criteria of the European Union’s legislation on quality systems for agricultural and food products, becoming the first product from BiH to be included in the EU Geographical Indications Register through the BiH Food Safety Agency.
While Livno cheese is included in the EU register, the process for obtaining a geographical indication label in BiH is still unclear. Although there are laws and regulations in compliance with EU legislation, jurisdictional conflicts remain.
Obtaining a Geographical Origin Label
In 2010, BiH adopted the Law on the Protection of Geographical Indications, designating the BiH Institute for Intellectual Property responsible for overseeing the procedure for protecting origin names and geographical indications of goods. That same year, the Council of Ministers adopted a regulation on the quality system of implementation acts, which regulates the quality certification of food products.
However, according to Lozo, this regulation was not enforced. Under the Law on the Protection of Geographical Indications, about 15 indications have been registered with the Institute for Intellectual Property, covering agricultural, food, industrial, artisanal, and handicraft products.
Eight years later, the Council of Ministers adopted the Regulation on Quality Systems for Food Products proposed by the BiH Food Safety Agency. The aim of this regulation is, among other things, to ensure “fair market competition for producers of food products with added value characteristics” and to provide reliable information to consumers about such products.
This regulation, according to Lozo, is aligned with EU legislation and regulates the same subject matter as the Law on the Protection of Geographical Indications. However, the difference is that it assigns registration authority to the Agency for Food Safety of BiH, and it only applies to agricultural and food products.
This raises the question of where it is better to register products, which Lozo believes is a matter of legal interpretation. He explains that the jurisdiction of the BiH Institute for Intellectual Property is established by the Law, while the authority of the BiH Agency for Food Safety is prescribed by the Regulation.
“A regulation is a legal act of lesser strength than a law. So, we have a conflict of legal jurisdiction here because the 2018 Regulation is based on the Food Act, but the Food Act doesn’t say that the BiH Food Safety Agency will be responsible for this,” Lozo said. He added, “If you look at the law, then registration with the Institute would be legally valid, while registration with the Agency would be, at the very least, questionable.”
Lozo also pointed out another shortcoming of the regulation—the lack of judicial protection, which the law provides. The law includes customs measures, penalties, temporary measures, insurance guarantees, and other important protections in cases of violations.
“Producers are not protected by the Regulation,” Lozo stated.
The Institute for Intellectual Property of BiH did not provide us with information regarding products with geographical indications in BiH, and there is no public register of these products and their specifications. General information about geographical indications and the protection process is available on their official website, along with the geographical indication registration form.
Unlike the Institute, the Agency has a public and transparent list of registered products (currently 20) on its website, along with a guide for obtaining geographical indications and various resources on this topic, such as the book Traditional Food Products of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Potential of Geographical Indications from 2022.
Lozo believes that the activities and operations of these two state institutions concerning geographical indications is a paradox: while the Institute for Intellectual Property has legal authority, it is passive and does almost nothing to protect geographical indications, limiting its activities to issuing decisions based on requests.
On the other hand, registrations with the Food Safety Agency are surprising because all information is available online, with interactive maps that allow quick and easy access to product specification, exactly as EU legislation requires.
Lozo highlights the potential of BiH products, emphasizing that it is not widely known that producers can approach the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Water Management, and Forestry, which provides incentives that subsidize registration costs, making it much easier for producers to define product specifications.
Alignment of BiH and European Legislation
Livno cheese has gained the prestigious EU-protected geographical indication, joining a list of over three thousand products whose quality and tradition are protected by the EU register for geographical indications of agricultural and food products.
In BiH, Livno cheese is registered only with the national Food Safety Agency, raising the question of how the EU views the jurisdictional conflict between the two state institutions over product registration.
Lozo explains that, when it comes to non-EU countries like BiH, registration is allowed only if national legislation is aligned with EU law. Following to a dispute before the World Trade Organization, this requirement was removed and replaced with a new one stipulating that the registration of the protection of geographical indication protection must be carried out in the country of origin.
“For BiH, this means that the EU does not get involved in questions of jurisdiction, but rather, it is only important that the product is protected at the national level. This is exactly what happened with Livno cheese. I expected the issue of unsettled registration jurisdiction to be raised, but it turned out that this wasn’t considered,” said Lozo, adding that BiH’s international reputation could suffer because it is essentially “in conflict with itself,” that is, two state institutions are in disagreement.
The jurisdictional conflict between the Agency for Food Safety and the Institute for Intellectual Property could, in the future, call into question the legal validity of certain registrations and make it difficult to align BiH law with that of the EU, according to Lozo.
Informing Consumers About Quality
EU policy mandates that the recognition of geographical indications should be increased through advertisements, campaigns, and promotions. Lozo believes that in BiH, consumers should also be informed about the kind of products they can buy and which ones have geographical indication protection.
“If we protect product names, but consumers are not aware of what they represent, then it’s all in vain. This is asymmetry of information, where on the one hand, we have a high-quality and traditional product that, for example, doesn’t contain chemicals, additives, or such thing, yet on the other hand, consumers are not aware of this. That means that producers have the right information, but consumers do not,” said Lozo.
For this reason, he argues that the protections policy in BiH should also include promotion and campaigns to raise awareness, as is done in the EU, to showcase the high quality of domestic products that have been verified.
In BiH, no research has been conducted on consumer awareness of geographical indications, but based on Lozo’s personal assessment, it is between 5% and 10%. According to a 2020 study conducted by the European Commission titled Study Supporting the Evaluation of Geographical Indications and Traditional Specialties Guaranteed in the EU, consumer awareness and understanding of the geographical indication system in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, and the Netherlands is between 8% and 28%.
