Labelling India-origin cheese ‘Made in India’ with Pride

Aishwarya Menon, Partner, Trademark, Copyright, Geographical Indication, K&S Partners, Gurgaon

As lifestyles shift and urbanisation increases, people are adopting western-style diets that include cheese in many foods, such as sandwiches, pizza, and baked goods. Customers are increasingly purchasing premium and foreign cheeses as a result of the middle class’s expansion and increased disposable income. Many businesses, including some local ones, have begun producing gourmet cheese as a result of the market’s expansion. The tendency of some of these firms to name their cheese products after European cheeses rather than Indian names is a concern that deflates India’s pride, even though this is a tremendous development for the cheese sector and a subject of pride for every Indian. 

India has a statute, namely the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, for the protection of geographical indications (GIs), and eligible GIs can be registered under the same. GI tagging, which protects the collective right of a community of producers, if administered properly, can grant a host of benefits, including:

1. Economic benefits to the producers involved with the production of goods tagged as GIs;
2. Quality assurances to the consumer;
3. Bolstering successful enforcement in the event of misuse by third parties; and
4. Social upliftment of the relevant community as the GI gains popularity and the product premium increases.

Assurance of Quality & Origin

There are many cheese products that are protected as GIs. When one thinks of high-quality premium cheeses, the names that often come to mind are from Europe. Gouda (from Holland), Camembert (from Normandy, France), Parmigiano Reggiano (also known as Parmesan) and Grana Padano (from Italy) are a few such names that are protected as GIs in their respective countries as well as around the world. 

Europe protects its cheeses as GIs either as Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) or Protected Geographical Indications (PGI). The key elements of any GI are the geographic origin and the characteristics and qualities of the product that can be linked to such geographic origin.

In the context of cheese, this would imply that each product that has the European PDO or PGI logo has a certain assurance as to quality and origin. In other words, this means that each stage of manufacturing – from sourcing the milk, its techniques of production, the conversion to cheese and the process of ensuring that it carefully matures, would have gone through a rigorous mechanism of quality control, inspections and checks. 

It’s All ‘Made in India’!

Traditionally in India, apart from private companies like Britannia, Milky Mist, and Parag Foods, many milk cooperative federations also manufacture and sell cheeses. One of the leading names in this category is the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), whose products under the brand name ‘Amul’ are sold extensively across India. Another popular brand, especially in northern India, is Mother Dairy (which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board).

European cheeses such as Parmesan, Emmental and so on have, over the years, found great popularity amongst Indian consumers, particularly in the metros where the consumer is usually more well-travelled and therefore would have had more exposure to European cheese names. Such exposure and awareness, coupled with the increase in demand for European cheeses over the years, seems to have encouraged various companies, including a few local ones, to take to gourmet cheese manufacturing. These include Amul, D’lecta, Mooz and Kodai, to name a few. While this is a great development for the dairy industry and a matter of pride for every Indian, the issue that emerges as a matter of concern and deflates India’s pride is the tendency by some of these players to name their cheese products after European cheeses. 

Most of these locally made cheese products are easily available in stores and even on quick-commerce platforms. For instance, a search for ‘Emmental’ in these physical or online stores would reveal several Emmental cheeses. But a closer examination of the product packaging would likely reveal that most of these are made in India!  

Considering the long-standing diverse, rich, cultural and artisanal heritage of India, the Indian government has been quite keen in promoting GIs in the past few years. During one such recent event called ‘GI Samagam’ in January this year, the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal stated that India aimed to obtain 10,000 GI tags by 2030. 

At a time when the government is promoting schemes like ‘Vocal for Local’ and ‘One District One Product’, why does a thriving dairy industry in India need European names as crutches to sell their locally made cheeses? Would it not be great for the industry to proudly give these cheeses Indian names? While it is said that ‘imitation is the best form of flattery’, in the present case, imitation is amounting to a violation of the intellectual property rights of European cheese producers. Additionally, these trends, if unchecked, can also dent India’s bright image as a leader when it comes to GI protection in the sub-continent. On the flip side of the coin, one would also want to encourage the European cheese GI owners to invest time and funds to prevent and curb such unauthorised use of their GI names in India.

While the Time is Right

The Indian dairy sector is one of the largest in the world. In 2024, the Indian cheese market size was valued at Rs 107.54 billion. As per estimates from IMARC Group, the market size is likely to touch Rs 593.47 billion by 2033, pointing to a compound annual growth rate of 19.86 per cent from 2025-2033. Given India’s tremendous rise on the global scene in the past decade, and its continuing emphasis on policies to be atmanirbhar or self-sufficient, it would be unbecoming if the above trend were to continue. With the ongoing India-EU Free Trade Agreement discussions slated to hopefully conclude by the end of this year, it is hoped that the government will align its various schemes and policies with the issues discussed above while negotiating. 

In any event, as a key world player, the sooner India works on resolving these issues, the taller it would stand on the global platform.