The world’s largest think tank has called for international action to fight the growing number of counterfeit food and drink products.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
A detailed report on food fakes from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has called on governments worldwide to “enhance and harmonise [the] registration and control of trademarks, and actions to combat counterfeiting and piracy”.
The European Brands Association has reported that customs seizures of counterfeit food and drink products within Europe soared by 250% between 2003 and 2005.
The OECD has called for “strong criminal sanctions” to punish offenders and to act as a deterrent, rather than relying on civil actions.
The OECD has also asked for governments and international organisations to coordinate all law enforcement agencies and food industries “to share intelligence and improve the effectiveness of enforcement operations”.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataHowever, the counterfeiting of food poses difficulty to fraudsters, with the number of fakes being lower when actual “physical counterfeiting” of food is necessary – rather than copying the packaging, labelling, trademark and the general appearance.
The OECD said: “This requires a considerably more sophisticated enterprise to successfully carry out the substitution and [to] convince retailers and the buying public that they are original items.”
As for the source of food fakes, China was “frequently mentioned” by respondents to OECD research questions “as the source of manufacturing, distribution and sale of counterfeited food and drink products”.
But, unlike in other industries, including clothing, car parts and computer accessories, China is “not the sole or dominant producer”, highlighting that counterfeit food products are usually produced for domestic rather than export markets.
