With Emater, pineapple festival enters the summer calendar of Salvaterra in Marajó
Emater data indicates an annual pineapple harvest in Salvaterra with 11 million fruits, placing the municipality among the main producers in Pará
This summer in Salvaterra, in Marajó, tastes like pineapple: organized by the local office of the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company of the State of Pará (Emater) in partnership with the Family Agriculture Cooperative of Marajó (Coopafam) and various entities, the 1st Pineapple Farmers Festival of Coopafam brought together about 250 fruit growers from Friday (18) to Sunday (20).
The Festival took place at the cooperative's headquarters, in the Village of Condeixa, at KM-04 of the PA-152 Highway. Two other groups of farmers also supported the event: the Cooperative of Family Farmers of Salvaterra (Cafas) and the Agricultural and Artisanal Fishing Cooperative of Monsaras (Coopapam).
With dynamics such as a cooking show, demonstrating delicacies like pineapple jelly with malagueta pepper, the program highlighted Emater's lecture on the progress of the Geographical Indication (GI) process for Salvaterra's pineapple with the National Institute of Industrial Property (Inpi), and the delivery, also by Emater, of the national seal of family agriculture (Senaf), linked to the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture (MDA), to producer Rosenildo Matos from the Maruacá community.
“The seal is another open door for our product: I hope, with it, greater regional appreciation and above all national recognition, because Salvaterra's pineapple deserves to be recognized widely, in the country and even in the world,” says Matos, 50, a reference in integrated pineapple production in the municipality.
In Retiro Santa Maria, there are six hectares of “pearl” type pineapple. The family also works with irrigated açaí, cupuaçu, cassava, watermelon, and corn. For 16 years, the structure has received injections of rural credit resources through projects developed by Emater: the current contract, worth R$ 25,000, through the More Food line, with the Bank of the Amazon (Basa), is being used to purchase inputs, especially fertilizer.
More production
The head of the local Emater office in Salvaterra, agronomist Orlando Lameira, a specialist in Georeferencing of Rural Properties, explains that the Festival's proposal is to promote pineapple, strengthen dialogue among interested parties, and shorten information and pathways regarding public policies.
“We emphasize that Emater's role is to grant autonomy for the Cooperative to be at the forefront. The event fosters the local economy, culture, and gastronomy, in addition to enhancing tourism. In the case of GI (Geographical Indication), for example, the tool further enhances this, which is the most important productive chain of family agriculture in the municipality,” he says.
Emater data indicates an annual pineapple harvest in Salvaterra of about two million fruits, placing the municipality among the main producers in Pará, with sales yielding 100% profit for family farmers. Ninety-five percent of the production supplies the Metropolitan Region of Belém (RMB), from the Supply Centers of Pará (Ceasa).
Text by Aline Miranda
