Brexit casualties: Scotch, salmon and Cornish pasties

The products could lose their protected status now that the UK is leaving the EU.

The Brexit vote cast doubt on more than the future of the EU.

The fate of Scotch whisky and Cornish pasties is also in question, along with that of other products reliant on the EU export market or protection under EU law.

The U.K. is host to 75 so-called geographical indications — products protected based on their names or geographical origin. Some, such as Scotch, sell widely worldwide. Other products, such as Cornish pasties — baked pastries containing meat and vegetables — see business value in having a recognized stamp of local authenticity.

With EU name protection and single-market access now up in the air, producers large and small are worried about how they will maintain their edge.

“The Cornish Pasty Association is disappointed in the result and will be pressing the government for clarity on plans to protect food names outside membership of the EU,” spokeswoman Ruth Huxley told POLITICO. “In the meantime, the CPA will continue to operate as a collective of strong and resilient businesses keen to uphold the quality and integrity of genuine Cornish pasties.”

Scotch distillers are even more concerned. While the spirit benefits from name protection, producers are fretting more about losing access to the lucrative EU market. Scotch whisky exports were worth around £3.7 billion last year — and 40 percent of exports go to the EU.

“The process of leaving the EU will inevitably generate significant uncertainty,” Scotch Whisky Association Chief Executive David Frost said. “There are serious issues to resolve in areas of major importance to our industry and which require urgent attention, notably the nature of future trade arrangements with both the single market and the wider world.”

Geographical indications can be serious business. Aggressive protection of regional foods is part of what is holding up a final deal on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and the U.S.

“The government will now need to consult as it prepares its negotiating approach,” Frost said about the protection granted to Scotch. “We urge thoughtful and serious consideration by all parties so that we can secure the best possible continued access to the EU and other export markets on which Scotch whisky’s success has been built.”

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Saturday she will seek immediate talks with Brussels to “protect Scotland’s place in the EU,” after the vote to leave.

The issue of EU name protection surfaced during the referendum period, highlighting its importance. Pro-Brexit British Farming Minister George Eustice suggested products could be protected under international trademark law instead.

Among beer sommeliers and salmon netters — Kentish ale and Scottish wild salmon also are protected — opinion about the post-Brexit future is more tempered.

Stephen Livens, a policy manager at the British Beer and Pub Association, pointed out that leaving the EU doesn’t necessarily mean forsaking the GI concept.

“In terms of protected food products there is already a mechanism for non-EU countries to register foods for regional or specialty protected status either directly to the Commission or via their national authority,” he said. It is likely existing British GI approvals would stay in place, though there are no guarantees.

For Scottish Wild Salmon, fishermen both complain about and champion the EU. On the one hand, the Commission awards the fish GI status, but on the other it complained about overfishing to the Scottish government.

“What can we do? The EU … seems to protect us with one hand then restricts us with the other,” the director of the Scottish Wild Salmon Fishing Company, George Pullar, told Scottish newspaper the Herald last year.

When contacted by POLITICO after the Brexit vote about the uncertainty of salmon’s status, Pullar was untroubled.

The Scottish government is going to ban fishing the salmon for two or three years, he said, because of Commission rules. But he said he had no desire to overfish and that everything would be fine because there are so few salmon netters left.

“We sell twice as much as we could catch,” he said.

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