Enhancing marketing access of Amazonian aquaculture and fisheries products
Background
Fish from rivers and lakes in the Amazon region – the largest fresh water reserves on the planet – provide the main animal protein for the area’s fast growing population. This project aims to improve the conditions for producers by increasing the marketability of their products from three project sites – Leticia, Columbia; Manaus, Brazil; and, Iquitos, Peru – to the markets in the region’s seven largest cities beyond the Amazon basin. The project was officially launched in Manaus, Brazil, in September of2009 at the 11th session of COPESCAL (Commission for Inland Fisheries of Latin America), and was followed by regional launches in Leticia, Columbia, and Lima, Peru. Coordinated by INFOPESCA, national authorities took the lead role in implementing the project along with fishermen, processors and wholesalers.
Market Surveys
The project began with regional market surveys to discern and identify which products should be chosen for development. One thousand copies of the regional market surveys, all locally printed, were published and distributed in the CFC/INFOPESCA standard series: Manaus (84 pages), Iquitos (38), Rio de Janeiro (103), Sao Paulo (86), Lima (110), Bogota (96), Brasilia (109).
Training Fishers
Marketing workshops were held in the autumn of 2010 in the three project sites to analyze market opportunities, choose suitable products, and develop and plan marketing programs.
The workshops were attended by 130 fishermen, fish farmers and wholesalers. For all three regional producer associations the innovative suggestions and strategies offered werewelcome and viewed asa completely new approach that could expand their marketing possibilities.
As this new approach was quite novel,concepts needed to be explained many times and in different ways in order to be fully understood and implemented. Approaches were customized for each regional producer association.
The practical implementation of these customized plans, including handling and quality control training activities, depended on new, fully operational ice plants and processing units. Ice units have now been purchased and installed
In Leticia, both the ice plant and processing unit were duly installed and inaugurated in the presence of local authorities, including the Governor of the Columbian department of Amazonas.
In Manaus, the ice plant and processing unit has been built, training of Federation members has begun and logistical planning is under way for the sending of Amazonian fish to the markets of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia.
In Iquitos, the ice plant has also now been installed.
The importance of information dissemination became apparent as the project unfolded. Published project results were widely disseminated, and authors formally presented market surveys of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Bogota in September 2010, at the 16th meeting, of the Pan American Network of Fish Inspection and Quality Control, attended by 150 participants from 17 countries. This meeting was organized by INFOPESCA and FAO.
In addition, project activities and related articles have appeared regularly INFOPESCA’s quarterly magazine from 2009 to 2010.
Conclusion
The project is still in its implementation stage but delays and obstacles have been mostly overcome and solutions found offer beneficial lessons learned. The project is now approaching its mid-term review phase.
