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Rural and agricultural development procedures, as they are currently set in the Coquimbo Region (Chile), are not precisely aimed to enhance a variety of products nor a variety of know-hows. The terroir, in its meaning of territory, is a known word, indeed, but not in a formal sense. The word is used to promote the qualities of products (which are not necessarily “typical ”) on the global market. Some of the actors involved are producers in a large scale (meaning surface of cultivated areas and capital): their systems involve mostly traders and consumers, whose main objective is to ensure the homogeneity and regularity of the production. On the contrary, some of the small and mean food producers show interest in the “exploitation de terroirs ” in the french meaning: they are well aware of the value of the concept for their productive activity. Still, the prevailing policies do not easily allow emergent initiatives to enter local and original products in larger markets.