Export projects 2019

2019 GUIDELINES

Export projects of Italian trading companies

With the aim of promoting and increasing awareness of the product through the increase of sales volumes of Parmigiano Reggiano PDO cheese in foreign markets, the Consortium has renewed support of promotional activities organised by Italian trading companies in 2019.

Export projects require the direct involvement of the Consortium in advance from the beginning design phases, as well as involvement during the operational planning and implementation of the activities, and in some cases utilising the support of the Consortium’s Marketing Agencies abroad.

Companies who wish to apply must submit, by 28 February 2019, an application for each project/market by completing in detail every section of the 2019 APPLICATION FORM FOR EXPORT PROJECTS

The contents of the project:

*must be linked to the objective of increasing awareness of the distinctive features of Parmigiano Reggiano and promoting it. *must include an objective of yearly quantity increase for each retail chain; *must consider elements for quality improvement such as the inclusion of premium products, long maturation products and/or innovative products, as well as the presentation of products in POS; *must guarantee the exclusivity of the type of distinctive promotion: the same activity contents may not be used for the promotion of hard cheese in the same year of the contribution in the same country and with the same retailer or channel; *must refer to the promotion of Parmigiano Reggiano with the mandatory indication of minimum maturation on the label for cheese in pieces (also outside the EU). The maximum amount of the contribution that can be paid for each single project, meant as planning of activities as part of a relation between an applicant (e.g. EXPORTER) and a foreign beneficiary (e.g. RETAILER/HORECA) in a specific Country, will be 150,000 €. No investment minimum threshold is set, however the consistency of the investment with the planned activities and expected results will be evaluated during the assessment phase.

Each project shall be evaluated individually and submitted to the Executive Committee for approval, then a written confirmation will be sent. The assessment will consider the following general criteria: promotion of the distinctiveness of Parmigiano Reggiano, focus on products having a minimum maturation of or longer than 24 months, type of geographical area involved, performance of the proposed activity (both as an individual activity and as an annual amount with the retailer involved), overall performance of the applicant on 2018 sales of Parmigiano Reggiano.

During the year, the Consortium may carry out checks on the proper execution of the planned activities.

Companies are required to send to the Export Department of the Consortium the schedule of activities using the form 2019 EXPORT PROJECT SCHEDULE PLANNER. The Consortium may request details or analytical updates of the schedule during the implementation of the programme.

2019 ACCESS CRITERIA

Applications for contributions may be sent in only by exporting companies:

*who have provided data about their export volumes in their respective markets for 2017 and 2018 to the statistical data service of the CRPA (Animal Production Research Centre) using the 2018 TRADING COMPANY QUESTIONNAIRE; *who have signed the 2019 PROJECT PARTICIPATION DECLARATION; The companies refusing any of the documentary and accounting audits established by the current and past guidelines are excluded;

The 2018 TRADING COMPANY QUESTIONNAIRE shall be submitted by and no later than 15 February 2019. The data may be verified by the auditing company carrying out the audit of the company/administrative offices.

Data must be sent to the attention of Claudio Montanari (e-mail: [email protected]; telephone: 0522/436999) and copied to the Export Department of the Consortium (e-mail: [email protected]).

The 2019 PROJECT PARTICIPATION DECLARATION must be completed and returned duly signed together with the first export project submitted for 2019.

PROCEDURES

All the documentation required by these guidelines must be sent to the Export Department of the Consortium through the following e-mail address: [email protected]

All activities must be carried out by 31 December 2019.

CONTRIBUTION PAYMENT

The exporting company that received a formal allocation of resources must inform the Consortium in writing in a timely manner about the date of beginning of the activities planned, confirming the number of days and activities that will be actually carried out.

On the start date, contributions will be considered to be accruing.

Should the company be interested in receiving resources in advance, it may issue an advance invoice of the expected amount within the limits of the amounts allocated submitting at the same time a bank/insurance guarantee of the same amount.

Upon written request of the Consortium during the year, the exporting company undertakes to timely inform it on the progress of each project. During the year, the amount of the contribution granted may be reduced only in case of failure to comply with the Guidelines or of a “negative” rating.

On the date the activities end, and no later than 30 November 2019 for projects scheduled for the Christmas period, the exporting company must send in writing, failing which it may lose all contributions, the summary of the activities and the amount of the contribution that will be actually accrued by 31 December 2019.

The amount notified in this way shall be considered approved and finally allocated, unless otherwise specified herein below. Following this notice, the Company may issue an invoice for the total amount within the limits of the amount allocated and net of the amount already requested in advance indicating the complete amount for 2019. The funds will be made available after checking the project summary sheet (see below) that the Company is mandatorily required to send by and no later than 30 June 2020.

Should the Company be interested in receiving resources before such term, it may submit at the same time a bank/insurance guarantee of the same amount.

The summary sheet for each project/retailer must contain:

*a copy of audiovisual and promotional materials (advertisements, etc.), images showing the activity, *final schedule. *Copies of all invoices and relevant payment receipts using the forms for 2019 EXPORT EXPENSE REPORT.xls The Summary sheet must be signed by the legal representative and must be issued pursuant to Articles 46 and 47 of Presidential Decree no. 445/2000, being aware that false declarations amount to a crime pursuant to the Italian Criminal Code and to the special laws on the matter pursuant to the provisions given in Art. 76 of Presidential Decree no. 445/2000.

The Consortium reserves the right to check all of the documents and sheets received, as well as through a specific activity audit of the accounts and documents on the company premises (activity that the beneficiary accepts by applying for these contributions).

In the event such audit showed deviations from the “written notice of end of the activities”, the exporting company shall issue an invoice to the Consortium covering the amount of such deviation.

SUSPENSIVE CONDITION

Should the beneficiary be part of a dispute against the Consortium pending before national courts or arbitrations, the Consortium shall keep the amounts until a decision is made as a guarantee of payment of internal and external costs borne by the Consortium to manage the dispute and not covered by the judgement in case of decision against the plaintiff.

RATING

Companies applying for 2019 contributions shall be subjected to subjective rating based on:

1. new serious nonconformities found by OCQ-PR in the two-year period 2018/2019;
2. new violations sanctioned and/or reported by the CFPR supervisor to official authorities and/or sanctioned by other competent national authorities (Icq, Nac, Nas, Cfs) nel 2018/2019;
3. serious non-compliances found with regards to the Monitoring Programme of Grating and Portioning Companies promoted by the Consortium; Any deviations found during the mandatory audit of the accounts carried out by a primary auditing company entrusted by the Consortium. In case of a «negative» rating, the Consortium reserves the right to reduce the amount of the contributions allocated to the Company.

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