ANTI-COUNTERFEIT: THE FRANCE-CHINA LINE HAS TAKEN GIANT STEPS, INCLUDING PREVENTION AND REPRESSION. THE "PROTECTED ECO ORIGIN OF PRODUCTS" LABEL CERITIFIES THE ORIGIN OF FRENCH WINE AND DECLARES WAR ON COUNTERFEITOR SHIPS

The fog is slowly lifting on the counterfeiting world, which is the real threat for the market in the Old World of fine wines and famous territories, in the third millennium. In recent months popular indignation has focused a lot on the most glaring cases, at least from a media point of view; like Rudy Kurniawan the Indonesian forger, or the case involving the British Antique Wine Company, which has yet to be solved.

Behind the scenes, though, there is a parallel economy worth tens of millions of euros, made up of mechanisms that need to be revealed and possibly prevented, on two lines: prevention and repression.

These two lines are the economic relations between France and China. These two countries embody both symbolically and in actuality the negative effects of counterfeiting. So, on April 22nd during the meeting between the delegations of the Beijing and Paris governments, an agreement to fight counterfeiting together was signed and today, a little over two weeks later, it has become a reality. The "Protected Eco origin of Products", is the certificate of origin that will accompany Made in France wines & spirits to China, where the problem often arises and where the government wants it to end. And, under the current circumstances, business relations and not only between the two countries, are likely to be strained. It is important to remember that China is the market of choice for Bordeaux wines that, sends 20% of its total production to Beijing.

Millions of bottles that then multiply, by way of complex mechanisms, to say the least. Xinshi Li, head of the Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine, and upon whose initiative the project "Eco Protected Origin of Products" was created, said, “If half of the entire amount of Chateau Lafite sold in China is false, it is because offshore on the Chinese coast, in international waters, where the law does not reach, there are ships with actual assembly lines, churning out who knows how many thousands of bottles of fake premium wines, starting with low cost wines. They are the first, not at all easy, targets of the Beijing government, which is more and more convinced and fierce in the fight against agribusiness counterfeiting.