São Paulo – On February 12th, the first public organic product market should be inaugurated in the city of Curitiba, capital of the state of Paraná. The Municipal Organics Market, built by the City Hall, in partnership with the Ministry for Agrarian Development, should offer over 1,000 certified items with product labels with a stamp showing they are free of pesticides and chemical additives.
"The Organics Market signals a new period for Curitiba, with offer to the population of a model for sustainable consumption, one that creates opportunities for the development of regional family farming," said mayor Beto Richa, in a press statement disclosed by a spokesperson.
The new space is in a strategic site, close to the centre and integrated to the traditional Municipal Market, where 50,000 people go each week. Investment reached 3.1 million Brazilian reals (US$ 1.3 million). The market covers 3,700 square metres on two storeys, plus a car park. The new market has 22 commercial spaces, to be occupied by two snack bars, one restaurant, three greengrocers, one butcher, one handicraft shop, one cosmetics shop, one garment manufacturer and eight vegetable and processed product stalls.
On the ground level will be the shops and vegetable and fruit stalls, and on the top story will be am amphitheatre for courses and meetings between retailers, farmers and businessmen. The idea is to stimulate organic product business roundtables. The floor also includes a kitchen, especially assembled for cooking courses.
Information disclosed by the city hall is that agreements have already been made with the National Service of Commercial Education (Senac) and the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae) to offer courses to farmers and tradesmen.
The entrepreneurs were selected through an electronic trading system. The entire trading circuit within the market counts on organic certification. There are two kinds of certification for products and for retailers. This control strengthens and guarantees consumers the precedence of industrialized and natural products, produced without pesticides and other chemical additives, and also shows where they are sold.
Sustainable
The new market counts on a system for rainwater collection. A special rain gutter on the roof transports water into a tank for use in environments and areas that do not need drinking water, like water for floor washing and bathrooms. The architecture of the internal environment of the Organics Market favours natural lighting and helps economise electric energy.
The building is on rua da Paz, 608, connected to the ancient Municipal Market, so that people may circulate both environments. Integration is through the food plaza, beside Box Curitiba. Safety is monitored by 12 cameras installed in strategic points and controlled by the Municipal Guard.
Incentive
The Municipal Supply Secretariat is already coordinating organic fairs in nine points around the city and plans to increase them to 13. Currently, 48 families of farmers from 11 cities in the metropolitan region are benefited by direct sales in these spaces, in which 470 tonnes of organic products are traded each year.
In 19 cities in the metropolitan region, cultivation is on 553 hectares of cropland, involving 430 families of farmers. Organic agriculture of the state of Paraná began in 1982, with the production of vegetables by a small group of farmers from the city of Agudos do Sul. There are currently over 300 producers in the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba and annual production of 3,800 tonnes, which corresponds to around 40% of the vegetable production in the state.
Service
Curitiba Municipal Organics Market
Working times
Tuesdays to Saturdays – from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm
Mondays – from 7:00 am to 2:00 pm
Sunday – from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm
Address: Rua da Paz, 608, Jardim Botânico (beside the Curitiba Municipal Market)
*Translated by Mark Ament
