Sedap and Instituto Mamirauá hold the Crab Fair in Soure next Sunday (31)
About 500 crabs and products from family farming will be offered, along with sales of handicrafts. The famous "toc toc" and performances by carimbó groups will also be present.
As a result of a partnership between the Secretary of Agricultural Development and Fisheries (Sedap) and the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Institute (IDSM), the Crab Fair will be held next Sunday (31) in the municipality of Soure, in the Marajó archipelago. An average of 500 fresh crabs will be sold, transported sustainably through ecological baskets that properly accommodate the crustacean. Derivatives such as crab legs and crab pasta extracted directly from the Extractive Reserve (Resex) of the municipality will also be offered, along with other delicacies made from crustaceans such as savory pie, salpicão, camusquim, as well as products from family farming.
The Crab Fair will take place in front of the municipal market. Sales will start at 8 AM and go until 12 PM. In addition to food, the fair will offer the sale of medicinal plants and handicrafts produced by the residents of the Resex. Two days before the event, training will be provided to the 50 crab catchers assisted by the joint actions of Sedap and Mamirauá. This work, as informed by the fishing coordinator of the secretary, Salomão Guimarães, is included in the Cooperation Agreement signed between the institutions and published in the State Official Gazette (DOE) on Thursday (28).
“Before the fair, Sedap, through the Fisheries Coordination, will provide training to the Resex users on the sustainable transportation of crabs. This action will be the first of a set of actions arising from the Cooperation Agreement,” announced Guimarães.
With the training and extractive fair of the Resex, Sedap aims to strengthen the participatory management processes of natural resources focusing on sustainable economic development, as emphasized by the fishing coordinator.
“Sedap will take the model of the traditional Fish Fair, which occurs annually during Holy Week, and will bring a more compact version to the municipality, respecting its specificities. This will be the first one we do, but throughout the year, together with the Mamirauá Institute, we will do it in other preservation areas,” announced Guimarães.
Transportation - Since 2015, Sedap has been encouraging the sustainable transportation of crabs. The results are positive, as evaluated by the oceanographer and technician in Fisheries Management and Aquaculture of the secretary, Thiago Oliveira, who, along with the fishing engineer, Ediano Santos, will be responsible for the training provided to the crab catchers of Soure's Resex. According to him, in addition to transportation, it is important to train participants so that they are aware of the dimension of the cost that this can truly represent in their lives.
“The intention is to give this economic dimension, improve their understanding so that they have a leading role and an opportunity to better understand the economic value of the product they have; the ‘toc toc’ is highly valued, but the fisherman still does not have this understanding of organization to achieve better profit for his life,” he noted.
In the Resex communities worked by Sedap – in municipalities such as São João da Ponta, Curuçá, and Augusto Corrêa, for example, fishermen are already looking forward to the programming of the secretary, such as the Fish Fair, as noted by the fishing engineer, because they are already aware of how much their work is worth and how much they can earn.
According to Oliveira, more than 3,000 fishermen from 50 communities have already been trained in the sustainable transportation practice of crabs. Sedap launched in 2020 the booklet “Management of the Uçá Crab: the packaging method for sustainable transportation” containing information on how to manage and transport crabs safely.
The methodology began to be employed in the State in 2011, experimentally by the technicians of the extinct SEPAq (State Secretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture) - which was integrated into the then State Secretary of Agriculture (Sagri) - now Sedap - using as inspiration experiments produced by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (Embrapa). With the institutional support of the State government, the booklet has among its authors the sociologist Patrik Passos, who at the time was an employee of SEPAq/Sedap. The booklet is in its second edition and is available at the Fisheries Coordination of Sedap.
During the action in Soure, 50 baskets will be distributed by the Mamirauá Institute to the crab catchers of the municipality.
The program is supported by the Municipal Government of Soure, the Association of Users of the Resex of Soure (Assuremas), the Mangrove Mothers Network, the Cuíra Network, Rare, and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio). The program is financed by the GEF (Global Environment Facility) with supervision from FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations).
In addition to the offer of crabs, there will be performances by the carimbó groups Eco Marajoara and Vida Ativa.
Service: The Crab Fair in Soure will be held in front of the Municipal Market, located in the center of the municipality, from 8 AM to 2 PM, on the next 31st. Typical dishes will be offered to eat on the spot and also fresh crabs stored sustainably to take home.
