The Chambers System carries out numerous activities aiming at encouraging quality promotion and certification, including marks of origin for art pottery, wine and oil.

Art and Quality Pottery
The “Art Pottery” and “Quality Pottery” marks are neither trade marks, nor collective marks. In fact, they aim at characterising products, by indicating that they originate from a specific area and, unlike trade and collective marks, they are not directly related to any specific company.
With a view to protecting value made-in-Italy art pottery on the EU market, two Registers have been established. One of them includes art and traditional pottery manufacturers, while the other one encompasses quality pottery manufacturers. The first Register includes manufacturers of pottery featuring shapes, decorations, techniques and styles belonging to the local historical and cultural heritage or featuring innovations inspired by tradition, while the second one encompasses the manufacturers of Italian pottery meeting particular specifications. The aforesaid Registers aim at protecting the designation of origin and preserving the technical features and production processes of valuable manufactured products. Registration entitles manufacturers to mark their products, thus specifying the name of the enterprise and place of origin, as well as the types of materials utilised (porcelain, stone pottery, ordinary earthenware, and so on).

Wine Designation of Origin
The expression “designation of origin” indicates the geographical name of any viticultural region or vineyard terrain, qualifying particularly renowned quality wines, whose salient features are the result of local natural and environmental conditions and vinification processes mostly implemented in the area.
Wines of designated origin include Doc (registered designation of origin) wines and Docg (registered and guaranteed designation of origin) wines. The Igt (typical geographical indication) acronym designates the geographical name utilised to mark a wine.

Both the registered designation of origin and typical geographical indication marks are allowed for wines complying with particular production specifications.

The aforesaid production specifications must include:
the wine designation of origin;
the boundaries of the grape production area;
the minimum yield in terms of grapes and wine per hectare;
the minimum alcoholic strength by volume of vintage grapes;
the wine physicochemical and organoleptic traits, as well as its minimum grado alcolemico for consumption;
the environment geomorphological condition and cultivation methods generally utilised in the relevant area;
the types of physicochemical testing and organoleptic evaluations carried out;
minimum ageing and maturing period, if any;
if bottling took place in specific areas (or sub-areas).

For each Doc, Docg or Igt wine, the relevant vineyard terrains must be registered, by the operators concerned, in the relevant Register of Vineyards, which is now kept by regional authorities. It is a public Register, which has been recently transferred from Chambers of Commerce to the Regions, and can be accessed by whoever may be interested or apply.

Vineyard terrains producing Igt wines must be reported and registered in Special Vineyard Lists. It is up to vineyard tenants to apply for Designation of Origin and Geographical Indication marks, during vintage, through grapes production statements. Said statements must be filed with the relevant municipal authorities who, within ten days of filing deadline, send them to the Chamber of Commerce.

After ascertaining that the information contained in each statement is correct, Chambers issue the relevant receipts, to be delivered to tenants, within thirty days.

In order for producers to be allowed to mark their wines with designation of origin labels, wines must undergo physicochemical and organoleptic testing. Physicochemical testing is performed by Chambers of Commerce, through their commodity chemical laboratories, upon the request of the person concerned. The aforesaid tests aim at ascertaining compliance of wines with the relevant physicochemical production specifications.
Organoleptic evaluation is made, upon the request of the person concerned, by the Chambers wine-tasting board.

Oils of Designated Origin
Pdo (Protected designation of origin) labelling is only allowed for oil whose characteristics mainly derive from the relevant geographical environment and its natural features, and whose processing has been performed in the designated geographical area. Igp (Indicated Geographical Indication) labelling only applies to oils that are typical of a specific geographical area, even if the whole production cycle has not taken place in said area.

Pdo oil production specifications must include:
the designation corresponding to the geographical name of the area where olive trees are grown;
the varietal platform;
the boundaries of the oil production area;
the olive growing technical, agronomic and environmental conditions;
the legal provisions concerning oilmaking procedures;
the physicochemical and organoleptic traits oil must show in order to be marketed;
the physicochemical testing and oil-tasting methods;
oil designations (names, marks and additional designations);
the information provided about oil packaging at source or processing performed by third partiesi.

Olive-yards located within the same area must be registered in the Public Register of Olive-Yards kept by each Chamber of Commerce.

The aforementioned Register is broken down by oil and includes all olive-yards whose characteristics allow producing Pod oil.

In order to register, the people concerned (including olive-yard owners, tenants or other olive-yard operators) must file an application, by filling in the relevant form, complemented by a certificate issued by the competent Regional Agricultural Bureau attesting that the relevant olive-yards meet protected designation of origin requirements.

Two copies of the aforesaid application must be sent to the competent Chamber of Commerce, which registers the olive-yards indicated by the operator in the Register. An application must include the following information:
the operator’s personal details;
the registration date and ID number;
the area encompassing the relevant land;
the olive-yard area size, including land registry entry details, divided by variety, also indicating the area maximum yield in terms of olives and the corresponding quantity of oil;
details about the statements for the variation of the surface of the relevant olive-yards or modification of cultivation methods.

Before olives and oil are put on the market, it is necessary to go through some formalities with the Chamber of Commerce.

A statement of the overall quantity of olives produced during the previous year must be filed every year with the Chamber of Commerce by olive-yard operators registered in the relevant Register, by January 30. Different formalities are envisaged for olives and oil. In order to market olives, any operator must declare, within two days of sale, the overall quantity produced up to that moment, the quantity of olives sold and the purchaser name. For oil, it is the responsibility of producers who sell oil of designated origin to declare, within two days of sale, the quantity of oil produced and sold, as well as the purchaser name.

In both cases, Chambers issue a receipt attesting that the declaring party fulfilled all regulatory obligations.

Once it has undergone successful physicochemical testing (in commodity chemical laboratories) and organoleptic (panel-test) assessment, oil (or single lots) produced in compliance with the relevant specifications must be certified suitable for Pod labelling on packaging. Chambers are responsible for the aforesaid certification, which is granted to oil owners after ascertaining that the oil he/she holds is the same as the oil indicated in the production statement.

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