The example of Jasmine rice

In defence of its position as one of the world's biggest rice exporters, Thailand is making headway in establishing a geographical indications system to protect the jasmine rice known in the local language as Hom Mali rice. The country's parliament passed the Protection of Geographical Indications Act in November 2002, which is expected to enter into force in early 2003. While the law will lay down the framework for geographical indications protection of plenty of other Thai products, the French government is lending technical assistance to the effort to draft a set of rules to certify the appellation of origin for what is to become the first product recognised under the newly-legislated Protection of Geographical Indications Act -- the jasmine rice from Buriram province in the north eastern region.

Two years ago, a local public-private sector committee was set up to draft a code of conduct to certify the jasmine rice grown in Buriram for GI protection. The committee features an assembly of officials from the Department of Intellectual Property, the Department of Agriculture, as well as representatives of Thailand's biggest agro-industry conglomerate the CP Group. "This code of conduct will ensure that Thai Hom Mali rice is protected under the Act" says Stephane Passeri, Regional Intellectual Property Co- ordinator at the French Embassy in Thailand.

Drafting the code containing what unique quality it takes to qualify as jasmine rice from Buriram has been underway for two years, as all sides take meticulous care that this set of rules will serve as a sort of prototype for Thailand to extend GI protection for other Thai products well known internationally, such as Thai silk, or Phuket pineapple.

In a region where many people’s livehood depends on agriculture, Vietnam already has a GI law, while Laos and Cambodia are interested to work on a similar system for products such as black sticky rice from Laos, or the famous black peppers from Kampot province of Cambodia. Against a backdrop of increasing awareness of the issue, Vietnam will host the first regional ECAP event in Hanoi in June 2003, during which ASEAN IP officials will meet with European experts in a workshop on geographical indications. This event will link-up with the EC-Vietnam programme under which assistance had already been given in the field of geographical indications, supplementing French assistance.