FOOD GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION IN ENHANCING AGRICULTURAL AND TOURISM PERFORMANCE.

Food Geographical Indication (GI) are labels that guarantee consumers that this is an original food product of the highest quality whose origin is linked to a specific region. The aim of the study was to determine the current state of GI, i.e. the number and spatial distribution in the EU and to examine their relationship with the performance indicator of agriculture and tourism in the EU. At the time of writing the paper in the EU Geographical indications register, 1,507 food products were recorded, which were unevenly distributed in the members of the Union. Most of them are in the southern Mediterranean member states, while their number is decreasing towards the north of Europe. The results of the paper reject the assumption of a positive correlation between the number of GIs and the performance of agriculture in the EU28. Indeed, the leading EU members in terms of agricultural output are also those with relatively few GIs. On the other hand, most GIs are found in EU member states with below-average developed agriculture but with an important role of tourism in their economy. The conclusion of the paper is that in most countries with less developed agriculture, GIs cannot significantly improve unfavourable macroeconomic agricultural indicators but have a multiplier contribution to the development of the tourist offer and tourism in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]