This Tuesday the first discussion of the Law Project for the Protection and Promotion of Agave Cocui-Cocuy Production was unanimously approved.
The project was presented and consigned by the deputy, Julio Chávez, who assured that the Cocuy is going to become an export product for the country.
“We are convinced that the Cocui and Cocuy agave will become flagship products of the Homeland and that it will surely pay off that debt that the parliament has with the country’s producers,” he said.
“This legislative act that the Venezuelan parliament celebrates today is loaded with a deep cultural heritage,” he said.
During his speech he highlighted, «for more than 2,000 years, perhaps a little more, already in these wild lands of the semi-arid states of Larense and Falcon, this plant was cultivated and known, which unlike others such as coffee, which he is native to Ethiopia, he is originally from Venezuela,” said the deputy.
He explained that the presentation of this bill is a justice action with the cocuy agave farmers of Lara and Falcón states, who were persecuted by the governments of the Fourth Republic for economic interests related to the alcoholic beverage industry.
“For this reason, today’s act, which we bring today, which is a law for the protection of cultivation, of research, of the use of agave cocui-cocuy, is mainly an act of justice,” he said.
Research on Agave Cocui-Cocuy
The Assembly session was attended by Miriam Díaz, specialist in Ecophysiology of Arid Land Plantswho spoke about the cultivation of the plant, the process of distillation and aging of the barrels, the development of cooking, the oven, the hard work and the special conditions needed to make the Cocuy artisanal drink.
The specialist indicated that Cocuy is very similar to mezcal, tequila and raicilla. She expressed that due to its aromas, composition of superior alcohols and organoleptic characteristics, together with the way of artisanal, manual and organic elaboration, they granted the Cocuy Pecayero in 2001 the first Controlled Designation of Origin (DOC).
He added that the Cocuy Pecayero is considered by experts as a heritage drink. He said that for many decades this liquor had been neglected in the country. However, it has regained its rightful place as a high quality and pure drink, made from the native plant of the arid zones of Falcón known by its scientific name Agave cocui Trelease.
El Cocuy is the first Venezuelan drink to obtain the DOC. In this regard, he stressed that there are only three DOC in the nation, that of cocoa from Chuao, obtained in February 2001; that of the Cocuy Pecayero, in May 2001; and that of rum from Venezuela, in June 2003, refers to the AN on its website.
More than 30 producers presented the Project
The very famous agave for preparing spirits, due to its resistant fiber, it has also been used since ancient times for the production of clothing, footwear, hammocks; as well as to produce medicines and it is a food that is consumed in Falcón. The penca is baked.
During the event it was highlighted that the Cocuy, as a cultural heritage, has a long history in Venezuela and its producers ask for the protection of this cultural and economic practice of the agave, from which drinks, creams and other products, including medicinal ones, are extracted.
More than 30 artisan producers delivered the legislative proposal for the protection of the plant and those who make the Cocuy Pecayero drink in the state of Falcón.
As a prelude to the debate, the directive exercised by deputy Jorge Rodríguez, toured and shared the exhibition sample and tasting of drinks in the courtyards of the Federal Palace.
The president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, stressed that the plant “shimmers in national and international spaces as a result of the resistance because even the peasants in the Fourth Republic had to go to the Sierra, “to Pecaya with its mills, with its stones , to be able to cultivate the agave,” he said.
