Dishes at Baeckeoffe.

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Siegfried-Burger Pottery

  • Who has never seen Alsatian pottery?

    You know, sometimes with storks, flowers, daisies etc.

  • This Alsatian pottery is sometimes confused with products which resemble it and are imported from Asia.

  • To protect their know-how and distinguish their products from this competition, the Potters of Alsace, brought together in association, set up a file in order to obtain a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).

    The answer is expected by this summer.

Storks on a blue background, daisies mingling with a red background or blue flowers drowned in the gray of the sandstone… Difficult to overlook Alsatian pottery for a visitor to the region.

Dishes, mussels in Kougelhopf or terrines in Baeckeoffe can be found in many shops.

At very variable rates, sometimes single or quadruple.

The reason ?

Not all of them are produced north of the Bas-Rhin, mainly in Soufflenheim and Betschdorf.

"For about fifteen years, we have been overwhelmed by Asian products, it is unfair competition", deplores Pierre Siegfried, who has long sought a solution to counter it.

"We should have the IGP for the summer"

The president of the Association of Potters of Alsace, which brings together 11 professionals in the sector, thinks he has found it.

Since December, a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) application file has been filed with the National Institute of Industrial Property (Inpi).

With in particular precise criteria of manufacture, which must take place between Bischwiller and Wissembourg.

“We are in the public investigation phase, which will last until March 26.

After that, two months will pass and we should have the IGP for the summer ”, hopes the craftsman.

The pottery of Alsace would then be recognized as a know-how, in the same way as the porcelain of Limoges or the Basque linen today.

A new collection of Alsatian pottery.

- Siegfried-Burger Pottery

Yellow and blue logo

In stores, they would then be adorned with the famous yellow and blue logo, which is already found on many food products for example, such as sauerkraut.

“This indication will no longer fool the consumer.

If we go to so much trouble and we are going to have a lot of controls, that's just why.

Stores will no longer be able to mix our pottery with those made in Asia.

"

This is no longer the case, according to a shopkeeper near Strasbourg Cathedral.

"Otherwise, we have a fine from the repression of fraud," he explains, who ensures that the two products are distinctly separated.

“And I inform clients that it is not the same thing, but I cannot force them to buy Alsacien!

"

"You need products for all budgets"

For him, the possible obtaining of the label should not change the habits of consumers.

“Firstly, because the potters from Soufflenheim and Betschdorf had trouble reinventing themselves.

They do not make certain items, such as the sponge holder for example, despite our requests.

Then, because you need products for all budgets.

For a bowl, for example, it's 9 euros against 15 euros.

I would like to sell only Alsatian but my business would no longer run.

"

Like some pottery workshops.

“Three years ago, six closed, remembers Pierre Siegfried.

There, one or two will be in retreat and there will be no continuation… ”

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  • Arts and crafts

  • Protection