Good luck finding a GPS signal or sign to get to Rita de Cassia's secluded farm in the mountains of southeastern Brazil The best bet for food-lovers chasing her award-winning handmade cheese is to stop and ask for directions Cassia's "Garrafao" is one of 57 Brazilian cheeses that won medals at the biennial "Mondial du Fromage" in Tours second only to France on the podium of the world's best Also read | How Africa's chocolate island produces high-end cocoa "'What do your cows eat that makes the cheese so delicious?'": that is the question Brazil's representative at the event says she got time and again from French colleagues The bucolic region where Cassia's farm sits in the longtime "queijo" (cheese) producing state of Minas Gerais Settled three centuries ago by colonists digging for gold the area started producing cheese when an Italian shoemaker arrived in the village of Alagoa in the early 20th century with a recipe for parmesan the municipality of 2,700 people is home to no less than 135 cheese-makers several of whom have won prizes at recent editions of the festival in Tours That is generating a nascent gastronomy tourism industry in Alagoa whose sleepy streets are now decorated with mini-Eiffel Towers at cheese shops celebrating the town's newfound status as a foodie destination The prizes "have changed our lives," says Dirce Martins who has been making cheese here for 39 years Buyers basically paid whatever price they wanted for our cheese giving a tour of the small room where she ages her multi-award-winning "Fumace" on wooden shelves Her cows graze at an altitude of 1,500 meters (nearly 5,000 feet) on otherwise untouched land rich in soil nutrients Martins produces at most 60 smoked cheeses a day has a similarly small operation: she and her husband make around 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of cheese a day with their 15 dairy cows "It's hard work -- 6:00 am to 10:00 pm every day as she shows how she and her husband artificially inseminate the cows themselves.She learned the trade from her father-in-law She and her husband credit the silver medal they won in France with luring the big-city suppliers who now brave the rocky valley road to their farm to buy their cheeses at 45 reais ($8) apiece "It gave us a lot of visibility," she says Also read | Say cheers to Iceland's Christmas beer winning a prize boosts its value by up to 20 percent the increase is 300 to 400 percent," says Carvalho an association that promotes Brazilian craft cheeses small cheese producers in Brazil say they are hampered by tough regulations on animal-based food products "You have to meet 900 different conditions," says Carvalho most cheese producers in the Alagoa region are only allowed to sell locally "We're pressuring the government to legalize craft cheese nationwide," says Carvalho "you could never get a permit to make a cheese like Cabrales which is aged in natural caves," says Juliana Jensen research director for booming craft cheese producer Cruzilia The company won a "super gold" in France with its "Santo Casamenteiro," a blue cheese with apricots and nuts that looks like a wedding cake has increased production by 30 percent in three years "Brazilians are starting to look within our own borders and value our flavors and traditions," says Jensen Also read | Want a perfect winter dish? Try this warm bajra bhakri with jaggery Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates Download the Mint app and read premium stories Log in to our website to save your bookmarks