[ti:Trend in Brazil’s Cocoa Industry: GI Labels] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]Brazilian cocoa growers are learning lessons from French wine makers. [00:07.56]Like producers of wine from France's Champagne area, [00:13.40]Brazil's chocolate industry is using geographical indication, or GI labels with good results. [00:23.96]These labels show where the cocoa comes from and its quality. [00:30.64]The special labels can lead to higher prices on the market. [00:36.32]Henrique Almeida is the 63-year-old owner of a farm in Coaraci, [00:44.68]in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. [00:48.84]He is pleased with the "South Bahia" geographical indication for his cocoa. [00:55.76]"The production of fine cocoa and the creation of the geographical indication label [01:03.68]make it possible to have a profitable business and pull our region upwards," Almeida said. [01:11.48]For many years, farmers in Bahia had produced common cocoa, [01:18.40]used widely in the chocolate industry. [01:21.76]But in 1989, an outbreak of "witches' broom" disease [01:28.36]sharply reduced the productivity of Bahia's cocoa trees. [01:34.16]These trees make up to 86 percent of Brazil's national crop. [01:41.36]At the time, Almeida, like other producers in southern Bahia, [01:48.08]chose to improve the quality of his crop in order to be able to continue growing. [01:56.00]"When I bought the farm, standard cocoa prices were low, and cocoa farmers were unmotivated, [02:04.64]while the chocolate market was doing well," he told the French news agency AFP. [02:12.08]"I started growing fine cocoa to make my own chocolate and add value to my product." [02:20.36]The label is the result of 10 years of work by Almeida and other cocoa producers, [02:28.08]as well as cooperatives and researchers. [02:32.40]Together, they created the South Bahia Cocoa Association to define production rules. [02:40.76]The National Institute of Industrial Property registered the GI in 2018 to make the label official. [02:51.08]The "South Bahia" label is the second GI given to Brazilian cocoa. [02:58.40]The Linhares region in the state of Espirito Santo was the first GI to be registered in 2012. [03:09.48]Tome-Acu in the northeastern state of Pará became the third in 2019. [03:17.44]I'm John Russell. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM