About P.D.O. Ribera del Xúquer

No. Designations of Origin are bodies created and promoted by the European Commission, and supervised by national and regional public administrations.

Designations of Origin are non-profit organisations, subject to private law in terms of management, but regulated and supervised by public administrations. In our case, we are regulated by the Regional Department of Agriculture of the Valencian Government and the national Ministry of Agriculture, as well as by the European Commission.

When a Designation of Origin is created, it is regulated in accordance with specific legislation created by the European Commission and all Member States. These regulations are given in the Specifications and in the regulations of the Regulatory Councils, where all operating rules are established.

It is the document that specifies the particular characteristics that differentiate the product being protected, and which must be complied with when identifying a product as coming from that Designation of Origin. This document details the characteristics that must be met by the kakis, as regards size, internal and external quality, presentation, origin, methods of production and identification for consumers, among others.

The regulations are the document that establishes how the Designation of Origin is managed, and these are approved by the competent autonomous administration, as well as by the Ministry of Agriculture. This document establishes the procedures for the management and organisation of the Designation of Origin, how the members of the Managing Board are elected, the operating rules and financing, among others.

Any grower and company or cooperative located within the area covered by the Designation of Origin can request registration provided they comply with the requirements established in the Specification.

In accordance with the regulations of the European Commission, products obtaining recognition as Protected Designations of Origin must guarantee that the product labelled as such complies with the requirements established in its Specification. To achieve this, our Designation of Origin certifies and controls that products labelled with our seal comply with all these guarantees. In turn, our Designation of Origin is accredited by ENAC (National Accreditation Entity), a national body under the Ministry of Industry, which is responsible for accrediting and controlling product certification bodies, as is our case. In accordance with European regulations, Designations of Origin certifying product must be duly accredited. Our Designation of Origin has been accredited by ENAC since 2011.

By implementing the certification system of our Designation of Origin, accredited by ENAC, we make weekly visits to all operators selling certified products to supervise that products identified as “Kaki Ribera del Xúquer” meet the established requirements.

Only kakis of the local variety “Rojo Brillante” produced in the area protected by the Designation of Origin may bear the logo or seal identifying them as a kaki with the “Ribera del Xúquer” Designation of Origin. The actual protected area of the Jucar River Banks can be consulted in our Specification.

No. Our Designation of Origin is only responsible for certifying and promoting products. The Designation of Origin, as a certifier, must remain independent from all marketing and sales of products.

Kakis certified by our Designation of Origin are identified by the logo of the Designation of Origin on the packaging and by the label you can find on the fruit itself, showing “Persimon® D.O.P. Kaki Ribera del Xúquer”.

The aim of the Designation of Origin is to ensure that when consumers purchase a certified product, they know they are buying a product that meets a series of quality requirements established in the PDO’s Specification and that it has been controlled under the Designation of Origin’s certification system. Thus, consumers can be sure that the kaki being purchased is of the highest quality, having been produced by growers committed to the district in which they are produced, showing all due support for maintaining traditional rural areas with all their ecological and scenic values.

Not necessarily. In fact, during the season, a large portion of the production in our protected area and registered with the Designation of Origin are not identified as a PDO product because they don’t meet the strict quality standards required, mostly for external quality reasons which do not really affect the internal quality or taste of the fruit, because they have been grown under the same conditions as certified fruit. For this reason, we never say that uncertified kakis are worse in quality than our certified Designation of Origin kakis. It’s just that some meet the grade and others don’t. Only a certified kaki tells consumers that it has passed more controls than other products. Moreover, there are quite a few growers both inside and outside the protected area of ​​the Designation of Origin who are not registered, but who are excellent professionals and produce high quality kakis, so they deserve all our respect.

The members of the Board are chosen in free elections, regulated by the Regional Government, following a process similar to that of a general election. All producers or operators registered in the Designation of Origin may stand as candidates. Every four years Board members are fully renewed at our Designation of Origin.

Although in Spanish the word for this fruit is “caqui”, when it came to naming our Designation of Origin we decided to take part of its botanical name “Diospiros kaki”.

As for “Ribera del Xúquer”, the official name of the Designation of Origin, we chose this because the first cultivation of this fruit was located in the areas near the riverbank that runs through the main production area, the “Riu Xúquer” (or in Spanish the “Júcar” River). This river has a very important presence in the area, as it not only brings water to our area for irrigation, but has also produced the high fertility of these agricultural lands. In addition, the “Riu Xúquer” greatly influences this area in multiple ways: ecological, scenic and as regards the culture of the traditional inhabitants of this district.