The National Assembly, through the Culture and Recreation and Education, Health, Science and Technology commissions, will promote an agreement so that cocoa is declared Cultural Heritage of the Nationinformed the deputy Carlos Sierra.
The proposal arose during the seminar “Flavors and Knowledge of Cocoa, Health, Tradition and Innovation in Venezuela”, which was held on Monday by the Permanent Commission on Education, Health, Science and Technology, indicated a note of the National Assembly.
The approach will be promoted by both committees of the parliament during the plenary.
cocoa superfood
For parliamentarian Miguel Pérez Abad, president of the Subcommittee on Innovation, Modernization of the State and Escalation of Strategic Sectors, cocoa is an item that “should be considered a superfoodfor the benefits it provides to health and for combating diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, in addition to improving the mood of older adults.
In this sense, he highlighted that the Permanent Commission of Economy, Finance and National Development is working on a bill on cocoa.
Likewise, Abad emphasized that, being a strategic sector for Venezuela, it is necessary to promote the cocoa sector from the cultivation, harvest, production, to the import that the producers fill out.
Universities: line of research
Due to its strategic importance for Venezuela, the deputy Carlos Sierra proposed to create a line of research in the different universities that allows the development of innovative projects in this area.
The lines of research, said Sierra, would seek to delve into the benefits of this item in the health of Venezuelans and “create awareness through a National Communication Plan, to learn about the nutritional contributions of cocoa as a medicinal treatment in celiac and intolerant patients. to gluten.
Producers speak
Ernesto Javier Márquez, a producer from the Barlovento region, who participated in the seminar “Flavors and Knowledge of Cocoa, Health, Tradition and Innovation in Venezuela”, indicated that innovation and technology are necessary for the production of chocolate, industrial processing and sale of the quality product with the Venezuelan seal.
For this reason, he proposed incentivizing efforts to create healthy chocolates, without sugar and sweetened with stevia.
“Cocoa is not a candy but a food,” he stressed.
Cocoa: three varieties
cocoa or Theobroma cacao is a native plant from the northern region of South America. In Venezuela it is cultivated mainly in warm, humid lands, with an average temperature of 30°C, without the use of pesticides, reported a note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to the research article “Cacao, culture and heritage: a fine aroma habitat in Venezuela”Three varieties of cocoa trees grow in the country: the Creole, which is native to Venezuela; the Trinitarian, which is the result of the crossing of the Creole with the Amazonian; and the outsider, from the Amazon basin.
