Division 5.3 Causal link between the geographical area and the quality or characteristics of the product (for PDO) or a specific quality, the reputation or other characteristic of the product (for PGI)

The request to have the PGI ‘Cipolla Rossa di Tropea Calabria’ recognised is justified by the product’s reputation and renown which notably grew thanks to various promotion campaigns, as demonstrated by historical and bibliographical sources. Various historical and bibliographical sources suggest that the onion was first introduced into the Mediterranean basin and in Calabria by the Phoenicians, then by the Greeks. The onion, very much appreciated during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, was considered a key product in people’s diets and for the local economy; onions were either bartered directly or sold and exported by sea to Tunisia, Algeria and Greece. Several travellers who visited Calabria and the Tyrrhenian coast between 1700 and 1800 refer to common ‘Cipolle Rosse’ (red onions) in their writings. Onions have always been a part of farmers’ diets and of local production. Already in 1905, during a trip to Calabria during which he visited Tropea, Doctor Albert was struck by the poverty of the peasants who only ate onions. At the turn of the twentieth century, the cultivation of the Tropea onion moved away from small gardens and family vegetable gardens and started to be grown on a very large scale. In 1929, the construction of the Valle Ruffa aqueduct enabled onion crops to be irrigated, which improved both the yield and the quality of the product. It was during the Bourbon period that the greatest impulse was given to spreading onion cultivation towards northern European markets. The onion soon became a sought-after and much appreciated product, as demonstrated by the ‘Studi sulla Calabria’ (Studies on Calabria) of 1901, which also refer to the shape of the bulb and to the red, oblong onions from Calabria. The first statistics compiled on onion cultivation in Calabria can be found in the ‘Enciclopedia agraria Reda (1936-39)’ (Reda Agricultural Encyclopaedia). The unique commercial features of this onion, which ensured its renown nationally, and also, above all, its historical and cultural value in the geographical area in question (still very much present in current cultural practices such as cooking, folkloric demonstrations and everyday idiomatic expressions) explain why this product has often been imitated and why its name is subject to counterfeiting.