MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile proposes to Peru joint promotional campaign for “pisco”

The Chilean government on Thursday proposed to Peru that the two countries conduct a joint promotional campaign for “pisco” - grape brandy - after the World Intellectual Property Organization recognized the validity of Chile's manufacture of the traditional Peruvian liquor.

Chilean Agriculture Minister Alvaro Rojas told reporters that pisco - which is distilled from grapes in wine-producing regions of South America - "must not be a motive for discord" with Peru and that it would be preferable for both countries to join together to promote the product in international markets to increase foreign sales.

"We want to deepen relations with Peru and not for the pisco issue to (create) ... discord, and it seems to us that, given the fact that its consumption is rather low, a joint campaign with Peru to promote it on the world level would be interesting," he said.

Rojas referred to an article in the daily La Tercera in which nine member countries of the so-called Lisbon Arrangement, which regulates the guarantee of origin of products, rejected a request presented a year ago by Peru that would have prohibited Chile from using pisco's guarantee of origin.

The countries rejecting the Peruvian petition were Bulgaria, Slovakia, Costa Rica, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and the Czech Republic.

Another 15 members of the entity, the paper said, abstained from making any pronouncements on the matter, resulting in the fact that both Peru and Chile may use the liquor's guarantee of origin.

Despite a long controversy between Chile and Peru on the matter, international consumption of the liquor is very limited, with Chile's exports of the product totaling just $765,000 in the first half of this year, according to industry sources.

Pisco is the most widely consumed spirit in Chile, Bolivia and Peru. The right to produce pisco as an exclusive cultural commodity has been the center of a bilateral dispute between Chile and Peru, although Santiago produces, markets and exports Chilean pisco in larger quantities than Lima