POTENTIAL GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS IN GHANA.

What is Geographical Indication?

GEOGRAPHICAL indications ( GIs) are names that are used to identify and commercialize natural agricultural products and foodstuffs, wines and spirit, as well as other traditionally made products such as handicrafts. Examples include Argane, Café de Colombia, Pochampally ikat, Champagne, Darjeeling tea, Parmigiano Reggiano, and Pisco. These products are deeply rooted in a given geographical and cultural environment. The unique qualities and characteristics of such products depend fundamentally on their geographical origin by virtue of the climate, soil composition, human and other factors.

Through GIs, products are differentiated based on their geographical origin. GIs are regulated by national laws. Public authorities fix and oversee the conditions under which a GI is conferred, maintained, and protected against imitations and appropriation. Public authorities also oversee the framework that ensures quality control, again with various degrees of involvement and effectiveness depending on the legal system chosen to protect GIs at national level.

Although there are a number of different definitions of GIs, the concept underlying each of them depends on the identity and uniqueness of products that are rooted in well defined geographical and cultural areas.

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ( TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) provides the first internationally accepted definition of GIs. They are defined as “indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a Member, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin”. Another definition of GIs can be found in the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellation of Origin and their International Registration, adopted in 1958 under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

According to Article 2 of the Agreement, an “Appellation of Origin”(AO) is ”the geographical name of a country, region, or locality, which serves to designate a product originating therein, the quality and characteristics of which are due exclusively or essentially to the geographical environment, including natural and human factors.” While the concept of an AO are provided in the Lisbon Agreement is narrow than that of GIs contained in the TRIPS Agreement, the underlying idea is the following: they are geographical names used to identify goods that can only be produced in a given geographical and cultural zone. The environment, by virtue of its soil composition, climate, biodiversity, local know-how and other human factors, confers specific characteristics on these products that make them unique.

The quality and characteristics linked to the geographical origin of a product must be sufficiently specific to differentiate it from other goods. The concept of quality can defined in relation to the product’s nutritional properties, flavor, appearance, or the process and raw materials used to produce it. The product’s characteristics can be determined by various standards, such as physical/chemical and or organoleptic traits. Reputation refers to the opinion consumers have of a given product; this generally requires a substantial period of time to be formed.

Natural factors such as climate, soils, local breeds and plant varities, and traditional equipment, as well as and human factors such as know-how and traditional knowledge, play a key role in forming the quality, characteristics, and reputation of origin products.

 GHANA has a basket of potential products that can be developed into GIs, among these products include; Ghana Cocoa, Ghana Fine Flavour Cocoa, Kente Cloth (non agricultural), Shama shea butter, Shama Yam, Sugarloaf Pineapple (Central region), Chocho Tea, Zomi Palm Oil and some Kasapraku products. It is known fact that some of our West African brothers come into the country buy some of these products and go back to their country and rebrand the product by changing the origin of the product to theirs and make huge profits whiles our poor farmers continue to lavish in poverty. A classical example is the zomi palm oil from Ghana that has been rebranded by our Nigerian brothers and sold in the international markets as a product from Nigeria.  Even in our local markets, most market women sell ordinary yams to consumers as PUNNA and charge them higher. Because of the known qualities of the PUNNA, everyone wants to buy it.  These products are already known in our markets, both local and international us products of unique quality. The onus therefore lies on the stakeholders especially the government to lay the foundation for some of these products to be developed into GIs. In order to leverage most of the Ghanaian populist who are lavishing in poverty since the agriculture sector employs over 60% of the Ghanaian populist.