Agência Brasil*
Brasília – An agreement signed yesterday (29) by the Ministry for Agrarian Development and the Curitiba city hall forecasts the construction of the first Permanent Market for Organic Products in the country.
The space will be exclusively turned to the sale of this kind of product on the retail market and will be in the centre of the city, which is the capital of the state of Paraná. There will also be a reserved area for courses and preparation of organic products.
The piece of land was donated by the city hall and the ministry will invest approximately R$ 2 million (approximately US$ 940,000) in the construction, scheduled to be complete by the end of the year.
The president of the Association of Consumers of Organic Products of the State of Paraná, Moacir Darolt, stated that the demand for organic products in the state is 35% greater than the offer. The establishment of the market, in his opinion, may make interest rise.
According to the Paraná State Institute of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension, there are 4,132 organic producers in the state. In the last crop, 80,000 tonnes of products like beans, rice, soy, cassava, brown sugar and vegetables, among others, generated gross income of approximately R$ 90 million (approximately US$ 42 million).
Figures supplied by the ministry show that over the last six years, production of organic products in Brazil rose from 40,000 tonnes to 300,000 tonnes a year. This kind of culture involves around 20,000 producers in the country and 80% of the total are family farmers.
*Translated by Mark Ament