Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
apples, pears and oranges, write the textbooks used in Brazilian Amazonia.
Promotion of underutilized native species is an uphill struggle and the slope is
increasing.
With all the difficulties mentioned, there are new things happening in
underutilized fruit development in Latin America. These developments can be
considered as 'push' and 'pull' vectors. The 'push' vector is the traditional R&D
work to provide information, ideas and training to local producers and agro-
industries. These actors are more or less competent to use the information,
ideas and training to improve productivity, quality and final product. The 'pull'
vector is new demand from local, national and international entrepreneurs.
These actors may have known native fruits since childhood or have learned
about them during a visit to the region, or even seen them on television.
A new 'pull' is that European entrepreneurial demands are starting to filter
into Latin America. There are also demands from the USA, Japan and a few
other developed countries, but they are less numerous and directed than the
European demands. The Japanese demand for camu-camu is an exception.
These entrepreneurs are seeking exotic flavours, new colours, different
appearances, but they, especially the Europeans, are demanding organic and
fair trade certification and high quality in exchange for good prices.
An example of these new times and actions is the fruit of the açaí-do-Pará.
This palm has been part of daily subsistence in the Amazon River estuary for
millennia and is consumed in enormous quantities. The small (1-2 g) fruits
have a thin (1 mm), oily, fibrous, starchy, purple pulp around the seed. The
pulp is softened in warm water for a couple of hours and removed from the
seed by scraping on metal, wood or fibre screens, resulting in a thick gruel
popularly called açaí wine (although it is not fermented). A medium-thick wine
contains 12.5% dry matter, of which 52% is fats, 25% is fibres, 10% is proteins,
3% is ash, and 2% is sugars; the wine is also relatively rich in the antioxidants
anthocyanins and alpha-tocopherol (Rogez, 2000). The cosmopolitan area of
Belém, Pará, Brazil, has a population of nearly 1.2 million, who consume 400 t
of açaí fruit per day in the form of açaí wine of various consistencies,
depending upon how much water is used during processing. Among the poorer
social classes, açaí wine is consumed at every meal, mixed with tapioca or
manioc flour.
At first glance, açaí would seem to be an unlikely candidate for
development outside its traditional area of consumption. Açaí wine is an
acquired taste, somewhat nutty, often somewhat metallic, a little acidic (pH =
5.2; easily corrected with sugar), especially if not truly fresh, so it is actually
surprising that it became a fad. There are half a dozen similar wines in
Amazonia, none of which is as important as açaí, but all of which are locally
popular, just as açaí wine was until some entrepreneurs came into the picture.
Since the mid-1990s the popularity of açaí wine has expanded throughout
Brazil and has caught the attention of American, European and Japanese
entrepreneurs. Brondizio (2004) discusses the local, national and international
history of this development.
As an underutilized product from the Brazilian periphery, açaí wine has
quality problems, due to fruit quality variation, harvesting and postharvesting
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