's' is the letter: shrimp and sweets from Brazil

The Brazilian Instituto Nacional da Propiedad Industriale (INPI) has granted two geographical indications (GI) – published last Tuesday 9th of August.

The first one is camarões da Costa Negra (Black Coast shrimp) cultivated in artificial ponds in the towns of Acaraú, Itarema and Cross. The GI form sought by the Association of shrimp farmers of the Black Coast (ACCN) was as a Designation of Origin (DO) which will be the second for a national product. The product has features and qualities like high protein content and a sweet taste, due to the geographical environment of the region, including soil and water, and human factors involved in the cultivation technique.

The second is doces de Pelota (sweets of Pelotas), a municipality about 250 km from Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. The soil characteristic of the region encourages the planting of fruit trees such as peaches, quinces, among others, used for the production of jams and later for the manufacture of sweets.

From this date both Associations have a period of 60 days to pay the fee required and once comply with, INPI will issue the said certificate.

GI in Brazil
Brazil recognises Geographical Indication in two forms: Denomination of Origin (DO) and Indication of Source - DO is more valued because it depends on proof that the product has special characteristics due to geographical and human factors all together.

On August last year, (INPI) granted the first Denomination of Origin to a Brazilian product - granted to ‘Litoral Norte Gaúcho’ for rice.
There are 5 DO pending for other national products: Cerrado Mineiro for coffee and ‘Vale dos Vinhedos’ for wines which enjoy indication of source (IS) already. The other three DO applied for are for stones.