“Charentais” melon: a name change soon?

With Parma ham as a starter or in a fruit salad for dessert, melon is a summer star product. It is the most consumed cucurbit in France, indicates Actu.fr. The best known is the one called “Charentais”, because it is grown in the departments (Charente and Charente-Maritime) of the same name.

However, under this name also hides the French production of the south-east and even that coming from Morocco or Spain. Because it is above all a trade name.

On purchase, the observation of a label bearing “Charentais melon, Origin of Spain” is therefore quite possible, because it is not a protected name in itself.

This designation can nevertheless be confusing for uninformed consumers.

Admittedly, three PGIs (protected geographical indications) have been created: the Guadeloupe melon; from Quercy and Haut-Poitou. And Cavaillon melons are subject to a request to obtain this same status.

However, for Myriam Martineau, president of the Interprofessional Melon Association (AIM), this is not enough. She initiated an international procedure before the UN to rename him.

“If we want to change the name of the Charentais melon, it is above all for consumers, because it creates confusion” she reports in the columns of the Charente-Libre media, transcribed by Capital.

How is the procedure going? The UN Working Party on Agricultural Quality Standards is handling the case. So far, no decision has been made.

Marion Mispouillé, host of AIM, declared for Charente-Libre: “We have completed the work on our side. But it is still necessary that all the countries agree.

Because France is only, after all, the third largest producer in the world in this area…