As Cadeias de valor alimentar inclusivas e sustentáveis do açaí e do peixe: o caso de Abaetetuba, PA

Abstract

The inclusive and sustainable food value chains of assai and fish are activities that generate income, employment, foreign exchange, with exports to Brazilian and international markets, as well as being fundamental to supplying the local market and preserving the natural stocks of assai trees in floodplains and fish in regional rivers in the territory of influence of the city of Abaetetuba. Due to the importance of these products in functional food, demand has been growing faster than supply, causing pressure on the stocks of these natural assets and generating environmental externalities in all links of these chains. In this context, the general objective of the thesis was to analyze the configuration of the assai fruit and fish value chains and the interaction between extractivism and the consumer market, taking into account the agents that act and define the peasant territoriality of the municipality of Abaetetuba. The methodology includes descriptive and interpretive analyses of the literature review and of the primary and secondary data collected. The field research, for the collection of primary data, contemplated the qualitative approach, with the use of the in-depth interview technique, aiming to capture the dynamics of the riverside peasants in their survival, based on the exploitation of natural resource stocks, and the quantitative approach, from the application of questionnaires, for the analysis of market information, via specification of consumer demands for assai and fish. The representative sample included 342 interviewees, with a confidence level of 95% and a sampling error of 5.4%. The results showed the lack of commitment of the agents that operate in the processing and marketing links of the products with the preservation of the floodplain in Abaetetetubense, due to their lack of knowledge and experience of the dynamics and preservation needs of the natural ecosystems of the floodplains, and because they only aim at short-term economic results. Consumers of fish and assai extractivism on the islands of Abaetetuba are willing to pay R$ 58.20 and R$ 98.74 per family per month to maintain the preservation of natural stocks of assai and fish, in order to ensure market supply and provide families with a healthy food consumption pattern of 43.12 l of assai and 30.27 kg of fish, respectively. It is concluded that the riverside territoriality, composed of peasants and local intermediaries, showed a high conception of the importance of the environment, related to its existence in the floodplain, from the practice of fishing and assai extraction carried out with the use of techniques of sustainable bases and by the family unit, which provided greater scope for the inclusion of this link in the chain. The main contribution of this thesis was to show the interconnected configuration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of the assai and fish chains, from significant results, to potentiate local development, from the stimulation of social organization and vertical integration of the production of riverside peasants with the agroindustry of functional foods in the territory of Abaetetuba.