Mexico City - President Enrique Peña Nieto is promoting an effort to make Mexican gastronomy "a great source of inclusion and prosperity, as well as of international standing." In unveiling his policy for the promotion of national gastronomy last month, Peña Nieto said the sector accounted for more than 5.5 million jobs and was "one of the main sources of income for Mexican households, and one of our major tourism attractions."

The president said the culinary industry's chain of value was one of the most widespread and diverse since it runs from small-scale farmers to food services, such as groceries, supermarkets and restaurants.

Peña Nieto said the sector had enormous potential to improve and grow in coming years.

The National Productivity Committee listed gastronomy as one of the eight strategic economic sectors to promote, saying that although gastronomy supported millions of jobs, "it is not structured and its productivity is very limited."

Peña Nieto signed the National Gastronomy Promotion Policy Agreement.

The agreement seeks to "speed up the transformation of our gastronomy to a more dynamic and comprehensive sector, with a strong economic base and broad social benefits, and a key element of our country's brand," Peña Nieto said.

To achieve the program's goals, Peña Nieto said the Ven a Comer (Come and Eat) brand would "help create a badge of quality and authenticity for products and markets, vendors, utensils, restaurants and even cooks, both in Mexico and overseas."

UNESCO declared Mexico's cooking part of the world's cultural heritage on Nov. 16, 2010.