diff --git a/core/taxonomy.c b/core/taxonomy.c
index 228020ae1..5f032cd46 100644
--- a/core/taxonomy.c
+++ b/core/taxonomy.c
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 #include "taxonomy.h"
 #include "gettext.h"
 #include <stdlib.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
 
 char *taxonomy_category_names[TC_NR_CATEGORIES] = {
 	QT_TRANSLATE_NOOP("gettextFromC", "None"),
@@ -47,3 +48,31 @@ int taxonomy_index_for_category(struct taxonomy_data *t, enum taxonomy_category
 			return i;
 	return -1;
 }
+
+const char *taxonomy_get_country(struct taxonomy_data *t)
+{
+	for (int i = 0; i < t->nr; i++)
+		if (t->category[i].category == TC_COUNTRY)
+			return t->category[i].value;
+	return NULL;
+}
+
+void taxonomy_set_country(struct taxonomy_data *t, const char *country, enum taxonomy_origin origin)
+{
+	int idx = -1;
+	for (int i = 0; i < t->nr; i++)
+		if (t->category[i].category == TC_COUNTRY) {
+			idx = i;
+			break;
+		}
+	if (idx == -1) {
+		if (t->nr == TC_NR_CATEGORIES - 1) {
+			// can't add another one
+			fprintf(stderr, "Error adding country taxonomy\n");
+			return;
+		}
+		idx = ++t->nr;
+	}
+	t->category[idx].value = country;
+	t->category[idx].origin = origin;
+}
diff --git a/core/taxonomy.h b/core/taxonomy.h
index 9fa9c6a0c..8c886c9ed 100644
--- a/core/taxonomy.h
+++ b/core/taxonomy.h
@@ -17,13 +17,20 @@ enum taxonomy_category {
 	TC_NR_CATEGORIES
 };
 
+enum taxonomy_origin {
+	GEOCODED,
+	GEOPARSED,
+	GEOMANUAL,
+	GEOCOPIED
+};
+
 extern char *taxonomy_category_names[TC_NR_CATEGORIES];
 extern char *taxonomy_api_names[TC_NR_CATEGORIES];
 
 struct taxonomy {
 	int category;		/* the category for this tag: ocean, country, admin_l1, admin_l2, localname, etc */
 	const char *value;	/* the value returned, parsed, or manually entered for that category */
-	enum { GEOCODED, PARSED, MANUAL, COPIED } origin;
+	enum taxonomy_origin origin;
 };
 
 /* the data block contains 3 taxonomy structures - unused ones have a tag value of NONE */
@@ -35,6 +42,8 @@ struct taxonomy_data {
 struct taxonomy *alloc_taxonomy();
 void free_taxonomy(struct taxonomy_data *t);
 int taxonomy_index_for_category(struct taxonomy_data *t, enum taxonomy_category cat);
+const char *taxonomy_get_country(struct taxonomy_data *t);
+void taxonomy_set_country(struct taxonomy_data *t, const char *country, enum taxonomy_origin origin);
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }