Last week, I wrote a post about Melton Mowbray Pork Pies. As the intrepid half-dozens who read it will remember, the post discussed the battle between Northern Foods and Dickinson & Morris (or, indeed, Samworth Brothers, the parent) over European protection for "Melton Mowbray Pork Pies". If you want the full story, do read the article.
This morning, I received an email from Gary Johnston, Marketing Director at Pork Farms Bowyers (an affiliate of Northern Foods). He adds some fascinating information to my initial post, and corrects some errors as well.

First, Mr. Johnston notes, Melton Mowbrays (abbreviated MMPP! Don't you love jargon?) have historically been made outside the protected zone -

"Melton Mowbray Pork Pies are a style (premium quality to consumers) and have been produced outside of their "traditional" region for over 100 years. Indeed, during the majority of the last century the volume of the production of these pies was almost entirely made outside this zone. Northern Foods has two sites (in Wiltshire and Shropshire) with rich histories of MMPP production and this PGI application threatens these factories and the associated employment".

And as I guessed, the economic motivations for Dickinson are clear - of course, Mr. Johnston is biased, but I'm sure his figures are near right, and I doubt that D&M would dispute his claim in substance;

"If this application gains approval - and political momentum is driving this - then they will gain a monopoly in this 50 million GBP marketplace".

Finally, and most important, Mr. Johnston reports some good news. Northern Foods has not dropped its legal challenge. Rather, there's been some last minute negotiation in the back room, which I've checked through some news sources. The Government has now agreed to conduct a re-evaluation of its administrative decision.

"[T]he reason that the Judicial Review has been adjourned is not as a result of alterations to the region's boundaries (this ploy was attempted last year). Northern Foods object to the applicatrions whether we have factories within the boundaries or not. Instead, it is because Defra have settled with our lawyers, on the grounds that they will re-assess our objections and make a fresh decision on this application. While this represents a positive move, there remains concerns that the application will still be ratified by our friends in London - romanced by the tale of huntsmen and pig herds. I am glad that you for one have not been so deceived".
I'll keep you everyone updated on this critical (for those of us interested in eating pork pies) story.