Fishery products as a source of income and food is the theme of the first meeting of the National Council for Aquiculture and Fisheries (Conape), which began this Tuesday, March 27, at Saint Paul Hotel, in Brazilian capital BrasÀlia.
The meeting includes the special secretary of Aquaculture and Fishery (Seap), Altemir Gregolin, and the president of the National Council for Food and Nutritional Security (Consea), Chico Menezes.
The need to expand the presence of fish in the Brazilian diet will be another topic for debate during the meeting. The consumption of fish is still low in Brazil: it is around seven kilograms per inhabitant per year.
This amount is lower than the 12 kilograms recommended by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the global average of 16 kilograms per inhabitant, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Fishermen Co-Op
Fishermen in the Marcílio Dias community, in Rio de Janeiro, who live off fishing in Guanabara Bay, got a new cooperative earlier this month. The investment, US$ 855,000, was made by Brazilian oil giant Petrobras.
The former cooperative was completely redone and expanded with the creation of the Project for Sustainable Development of Marcílio Dias Community. This is the first project of the kind implemented in southeastern Brazil.
The volume of fishery products currently caught by the community is 240 tons a month, which may be processed for the production of canned food and other products, like hamburgers and pies. Around 150 families of fishermen should be directly benefited by the initiative.
