Delpaís mark: what it guarantees and how to license it

Delpaís is the mark the Government uses to identify local agricultural products, and since 2016 it has its own law: who may use it, under what conditions and what happens if it is misused. If you are buying, it helps to know exactly what that seal guarantees — and what it does not. If you produce, here is the licence route, requested through FIDA, lasting one calendar year and carrying duties that continue after it is granted.

It may be applied for by “any natural or juridical person, private or public” under the applicant definition in Article 3(q), though Article 5(a) speaks of a private person or entity. Article 8(a) asks four things: financial responsibility and capacity to meet the payment conditions of the contract with FIDA; maintaining the quality and safety of the products and continuous production; if a juridical person, being duly incorporated or constituted and authorised by the Department of State to do business in Puerto Rico; and the possibility that a natural person later be substituted by a juridical one, if FIDA authorises it and the change does not harm the public interest. Article 8(b) says who is out: officials or employees of the Department and its units, absent an express legal waiver; anyone barred by the Government Ethics Act or another law; anyone with debts due to FIDA, the Department or its units, unless they pay in full or agree an approved payment plan before the process begins; anyone who does not satisfactorily evidence financial capacity, provenance, quality or supply; and anyone who intentionally omits required information or knowingly submits false information.

• That the product was produced, processed and packed in Puerto Rico.Verified against the official source
• If it is a processed product needing agricultural raw material not produced in Puerto Rico: that no less than sixty-five per cent (65%) of the total agricultural raw material used be produced in Puerto Rico.Verified against the official source
• File the Licence and Authorisation to Use the Mark application with FIDA, along with the Treasury Department’s Merchant Registration Certificate and payment of the fees set by regulation.Verified against the official source
• Hold the financial responsibility and capacity to meet the payment conditions of the contract with FIDA, verified beforehand.Verified against the official source
• Have no debts due to FIDA, the Department or its attached units, unless paid in full or under a payment plan approved before the process begins.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: If you are buying: what the seal actually means

   Article 11(a) is one line and it is the governing one: “The Licence to Use the ‘Delpaís’ Mark shall be limited exclusively to products that have been produced, processed and packed in Puerto Rico.” Three verbs, all three here. And 11(b) says what happens when a processed product needs something not grown here: “no less than 65% of the total agricultural raw material used must be produced in Puerto Rico for the final product to qualify to use the mark.” That sixty-five per cent is the number worth knowing: a processed product with the seal is not necessarily one hundred per cent local, but by law its agricultural raw material is local by at least two thirds.

2. 2

   Step 2: What products the mark covers

   The Article 3(n) definition is closed and worth reading in full: “Fruits, vegetables, starchy staples, dairy, honey, meats, fish, eggs, ornamental plants and spices produced in Puerto Rico, or products processed from the foregoing.” If yours is on that list, or is processed from something on that list, you are within the mark’s scope. If it does not appear, the Act does not cover it and we will not stretch it for you.

3. 3

   Step 3: The licence goes through FIDA, not the Secretariat

   Worth knowing before knocking on the wrong door. Article 3(f) defines “Department” as the Department of Agriculture “represented in turn by FIDA in everything relating to trademarks belonging to the Department,” and FIDA is the Innovation Fund for Agricultural Development of Puerto Rico, a subsidiary corporation of the Land Authority. Article 7(a): “All Licence and Authorisation to Use the ‘Delpaís’ Mark applications shall be received at FIDA’s office to be dated, logged and evaluated.” The application itself is a document “to be designed and provided by FIDA.”

4. 4

   Step 4: The fifteen-day clock and what they can ask you for

   There is only one fixed term in the whole procedure and this is it. Article 7(b): “On or before fifteen (15) days from receipt of the application, the applicant shall be required to deliver any supplementary information deemed necessary.” After that, the subsequent procedure does not begin until it is certified in writing to the Executive Director that you delivered everything. The application may ask you, under Article 5(b), for name and addresses, the persons authorised to do business on the entity’s behalf with their signatures, social security or employer number, the Treasury Department’s Merchant Registration Certificate, payment of fees per regulation, and whatever else the Evaluating Committee deems necessary.

5. 5

   Step 5: It lasts a calendar year, and must be renewed

   Article 3(l) defines it unambiguously: “Licence — Authorisation to Use the ‘Delpaís’ Mark, issued annually, effective from January 1 to December 31.” It does not run from the day you receive it: it runs by calendar year. And Article 9 says how it is renewed: by submitting “the same information and documentation originally required, but updated to the renewal date,” with the Department, FIDA or the Evaluating Committee able to require additional information.

6. 6

   Step 6: What binds you after you have it

   The licence does not end at the paper. Article 14(a) requires you to certify that you will establish a programme “to periodically verify the freshness of product placed on shelves for sale,” that you will immediately remove product past its expiry date, and that you will include all information required by DACO, Health, Agriculture, the USDA “and all local and federal agencies regulating each practice.” 14(b) commits you to keep adequate and sufficient supply in Puerto Rico at all times, with an alternative if you cannot. Article 10(a) prohibits transferring your rights or authorising third parties without the Department’s prior written consent. And Article 21 makes it an essential part of the contract that you keep general and product liability policies in force, naming FIDA and the Department as insureds.

7. 7

   Step 7: They can enter your farm, and you keep six years of books

   Two duties that surprise people and are worth knowing before signing. Article 16: the Department, through FIDA’s Quality Unit and the Auxiliary Secretariat of Agro-Commercial Integrity, may inspect and audit processing, packing and distribution, and “the applicant must allow access by representatives of the Department, its attached units and FIDA to the farm, the plant, or place of processing, packing or distribution of the products, as well as to its delivery vehicles.” If a special inspection or certification is needed, you cover the cost. Article 17: accounting books available for FIDA inspection under generally accepted accounting principles, “for the year the application was filed and the five (5) prior years,” plus a register of gross sales volume of the marked products “for use in computing the amount payable as royalty.” Yes: there is a royalty, though the Act does not publish its amount.

8. 8

   Step 8: What misusing it costs

   Article 18 empowers the Department to open an administrative proceeding and impose fines “for the violation of any of the legal provisions established” in the Act, and sets the band: “The administrative fine shall be not less than one thousand dollars ($1,000) nor more than five thousand dollars ($5,000).” Article 19 adds that the Department or FIDA may terminate the licence at any time “when the person or entity to whom the licence and authorisation is issued violates any law or regulation of the Department of Agriculture or another local or federal agency regulating the authorised product.” That is, a violation before DACO, Health or the USDA can cost you the mark even if it has nothing to do with this Act.

9. 9

   Step 9: A detail in the PDF that will confuse you

   We say this so you do not lose time. The compilation’s title page reads “Act No. 195 of 27 December 2016” and the OGP catalogue also lists it as 195-2016, but the header repeated across all fourteen pages reads “[Ley 196-2016, según enmendada].” That is thirteen appearances of the wrong number. We cite it as Act 195-2016, which is what its own title page says, and we flag the disagreement so you do not think you opened the wrong document. The compilation also states it incorporates the amendments of Act 87-2023.

At FIDA, the Innovation Fund for Agricultural Development of Puerto Rico, a subsidiary corporation of the Land Authority, which represents the Department of Agriculture in everything relating to its trademarks and where Article 7(a) requires all applications to be received. The Evaluating Committee that studies them has three members: the Auxiliary Secretary of Agricultural Innovation and Commercialisation, the Auxiliary Secretary of Agro-Commercial Integrity and a FIDA representative. The Act publishes no form, office, address, telephone, fees or royalty amount, and we do not invent them.

• Reading the seal as “one hundred per cent Puerto Rico” on a processed product: the Act allows up to thirty-five per cent of agricultural raw material from outside.
• Believing producing here is enough: the licence is limited to products produced, processed and packed in Puerto Rico.
• Filing the application at the Secretariat: all are received at FIDA’s office.
• Thinking the licence runs from when you receive it: it is issued annually, effective January 1 to December 31.
• Lending the mark to a third party: rights may not be transferred nor use authorised without the Department’s prior written consent.
• Leaving expired product on the shelf: the licensee commits to removing it immediately and verifying freshness periodically.
• Discarding old books: they must be kept available for the application year and the five prior years.
• Assuming a fine from another agency does not matter: a violation before another local or federal agency regulating the product can end the licence.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Agricultura de Puerto Rico

  Agricultura

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov