Collective Mark

The collective mark “Landscape Park Strunjan” is a label which certifies an agricultural or processed food product, catering or tourist service from the area of Landscape Park Strunjan, meeting or exceeding the criteria prescribed, and bestows added value on them in its capacity of high-quality certification.

In addition to linking local suppliers and service providers, the purpose of protecting superior goods and services with a collective mark is to increase the visibility of Landscape Park Strunjan while maintaining the utmost control over the performance of services and the cultivation and/or processing techniques of the goods within its boundaries. Such supervision should lessen the impacts on the environment, reduce the activities that produce them, and thus guarantee the highest degree of nature protection within the area of the park.

The collective mark is a trust mark, a guarantee of quality and an ecolabel at the same time. The authorised producers and providers use it as a guarantee that their services and the cultivation, processing or preparation for market of their products affect the natural environment in the least invasive way possible.

The owner of the collective mark is the Public Institute Landscape Park Strunjan (JZ KPS), which can confer interested local producers, manufacturers and service providers a one-year license to use the mark. The latter was registered in 2010 with the financial aid of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) via the 4^th development axis (the LEADER approach), with the registration part implemented within the framework of a local action group for rural development (LAS Istre).

However, the collective mark project is not completed yet. So far, the legal and organisational bases have been arranged for licensing persimmon and artichoke producers, olive growers and olive oil producers; but the right to use the mark will soon be extended to mussel farmers, and, hopefully in the near future, also to suppliers of processed agricultural products (fruit- or vegetable-based and other food products) and providers of catering, lodging and tourism services.

The Right to Use the “Landscape Park Strunjan” Collective Mark

Eligibility Criteria

The right of use of the collective mark can be granted to those agricultural producers and olive oil producers who:

produce their goods within the area of Landscape Park Strunjan,
produce their goods according to the methods of integrated or organic farming,
build newly erected or reconstructed supporting or retaining walls solely as dry-stone walls or, when building with concrete, in the appearance of dry-stone wall – i.e., coated with local stone and without grouting the joints, and
operate in compliance with land use allocation and statutory provisions from the areas of spatial planning and building construction.

An additional condition applicable to olive oil producers states that the license to use the collective mark is granted exclusively to producers of extra virgin olive oil.

After a two-year introductory phase, additional terms shall apply governing the share of hedges (rows of shrubs or small trees planted close to each other in order to form a boundary) in agricultural land, and imposing the requirement to curb the growth of invasive species or clear invasive species from all types of land under the ownership or management of the authorised user of the collective mark.

Applicants for the right to use the Landscape Park Strunjan collective mark should fill out the application forms (see below) complete with all the required supplements and submit the documents to the address of the Public Institute Landscape Park Strunjan. At the moment, the application forms are only available in the Slovene language.

Application Forms

The applicants for the right of use of the collective mark who have been granted the license in previous years and have not registered any change of ownership or tenancy of agricultural lands fill out the form “Application for a Renewal of the Collective Mark License” below.

First-time applicants and those in cases in which changes in ownership or tenancy of agricultural lands have occurred since the collective mark was last applied for are required to fill out and submit the form that is published together with the invitation.

Agricultural producers and service providers who are interested in obtaining the right to use the collective mark and wish to be kept up to date on the latest news and announcements, please e-mail the Park at info@parkstrunjan.si in order to be added on the mailing list.

Granting and Use

The decision whether the applicant meets the criteria for being granted the collective mark license is, according to the regulations, taken by an expert committee, based on the information submitted with the application form and its supplements, and on a site visit.

Depending on the production method, there exist two versions of the collective mark label to be affixed by the licensee on the packaging of their products: yellow for integrated and green for organic production.

In addition to the labels, the collective mark licensee is required to display conspicuously at place of business their valid integrated or organic certificate.