As mentioned previously, designations are a commercial identification strategy that reflects the evolution of a product or group of products over decades or generations. For the vast majority of agricultural products, only the manufacturer’s name or trademark is used to market them. However, when a group of operators from one region or sector realizes their product is very special and in demand by consumers, then it is in their interest to define the product and provide consumers and marketing intermediaries with a guarantee that the product being offered is the one they really want in order to develop a long-term market for this product.

The first step in obtaining recognition for a designation is to define how the product is different from common products in the same category, how its producers have mastered the development and manufacturing phases, and finally why consumers seek this product more than others. It is at this point that the producer group develops and validates the product’s specification manual.

The second step for the producer group is to develop the product’s certification program in order to ensure compliance by operators (producers, processors) with the specification manual it developed. The management of this program could be entrusted to an existing certification body or even to a new body set up to manage such a certification program.

Once the selected body has certified products of this type, the third step is to submit an application to have the designation recognized. The group may submit a formal application to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Québec or even to the Conseil des appellations réservées et des termes valorisants (CARTV) which will in any case review the submission in order to make a recommendation to the Minister.

It must be remembered that the guarantee of authenticity, and therefore the credibility of the designation on both domestic and foreign markets, is based on the certification issued by accredited bodies, through following an evaluation process conducted according to international standards (ISO/IEC Guide 17011).

It is for this reason that the one or more certifying bodies designated by the applicant group must be accredited by the CARTV, which will have first confirmed the body’s compliance with the competence, transparency and independence criteria, as set out in the ISO/IEC Guide 65: 1996.

The CARTV will recommend that the Minister proceed to recognize the designation once a designated certifying body has been accredited.

If, following a review process, the Minister recognizes the designation applied for, it may then ask the Conseil des appellations réservées et des termes valorisants (CARTV) to take charge of controlling the designation.

The Act Respecting Reserved Designations and Value-Added Claims recognizes the CARTV’s authority to:

• Accredit agencies certifying products bearing a reserved designation
• Recommend to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Québec that a given designation be reserved
• Supervise the use of the designation once the Minister has reserved it.