Aquaculture in Brazil

114 Pages·2013·3.13 MB·English

FACULTY OF TECHNOLOGY, POLICY AND MANAGEMENT
Aquaculture in Brazil
New institutional framework, new possibilities

Thesis for the degree of Master of Science in
Engineering and Policy Analysis

by
Hugo Daniel Almeida Rodrigues
4127323

9th July 2013

Graduation Committee:
Prof. Dr.Ir. Wil Thissen (chairman)
Dr.Ir. Bert Enserink (first supervisor)
Dr. Martin de Jong (second supervisor)
Contents
1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 Preparing the work ........................................................................................................ 6
1.2 Readers Guide ............................................................................................................... 7
2 Aquaculture in Brazil and identification of its problems ....................................................... 8
2.1 Production and market ................................................................................................. 8
2.2 Sustainability ............................................................................................................... 19
2.3 About ethics and animal welfare ................................................................................ 20
2.4 Problem definition and research objective ................................................................. 22
2.5 End note to chapter 2.................................................................................................. 25
3 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 26
3.1 Desk Research ............................................................................................................. 27
3.2 Actor and System Analysis .......................................................................................... 27
3.3 Comparative Analysis .................................................................................................. 29
3.4 Limitations and uncertainties identified In methods .................................................. 31
4 Theoretical aspects of aquaculture ..................................................................................... 33
4.1 Regulatory aspects ...................................................................................................... 33
4.2 Technical aspects ........................................................................................................ 37
4.3 Economic aspects ........................................................................................................ 46
5 Analysis of Brazilian aquaculture - Actors and System ....................................................... 50
5.1 Actor analysis .............................................................................................................. 51
5.2 System analysis and causal loop diagram ................................................................... 70
5.3 Bottlenecks and opportunities .................................................................................... 75
5.4 Possible solutions ........................................................................................................ 77
6 Aquaculture in Vietnam and Chile ...................................................................................... 78
6.1 Vietnamese aquaculture ............................................................................................. 78
6.1.1 Institutional framework and administrative aspects .......................................... 79
6.1.2 Production and socio-economic impact of aquaculture ..................................... 81
6.1.3 Industry development and entrepreneurship ..................................................... 82
6.1.4 Internal demand for products and its quality ..................................................... 82
6.2 Chilean aquaculture .................................................................................................... 83
6.2.1 Institutional framework and administrative aspects .......................................... 84
6.2.2 Production and social-economic impact of aquaculture .................................... 85
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6.2.3 Industry development and entrepreneurship ..................................................... 86
6.2.4 Internal demand for products and its quality ..................................................... 87
7 Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 88
8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 92
9 Final Reflexion ..................................................................................................................... 94

List of figures

Figure 1: Aquaculture production in the world in 2002 (Source: globaleducationproject.org) ... 5
Figure 2: Reported aquaculture production in Brazil since 1950 (FAO Fishery statistics) ............ 9
Figure 3: Fish production in Brazil by source in 2010 (MPA 2012) ............................................. 11
Figure 4: Production of fish in Brazil by region in 2010 (MPA 2012) .......................................... 11
Figure 5: Aquaculture production in Brazil in the period 2008-2010. Maritime aquaculture (left)
inland aquaculture (right) (MPA 2012) ...................................................................................... 12
Figure 6: Main species from aquaculture by region in Brazil (Matias 2010) .............................. 14
Figure 7: Top 7 destiny markets for the Brazilian fish products in 2010 (MPA 2012) ................ 16
Figure 8: Top 6 origins from Brazilian fish imports in 2010 (MPA 2012) .................................... 16
Figure 9: Main fish imports of Brazil by type and origin in 2010 (MPA 2012) ............................ 17
Figure 10: Evolution of fish production and consumption per capita in Brazil 1996-2010 ........ 18
Figure 11: Divisions of the aquaculture sustainability ................................................................ 19
Figure 12: The three inter-related aspects of the sustainability of an aquaculture system:
production technology, social and economic aspects, and environmental aspects (Edwards
1998) ........................................................................................................................................... 20
Figure 13: Thesis research framework ........................................................................................ 24
Figure 14: Overview of theoretical methods used through the thesis ....................................... 26
Figure 15: Shrimp farming in mangrove forests (left) source:shrimpnews.com and mangrove
destruction (right) source:coastalcare.org .................................................................................. 34
Figure 16: A fish farming system is a small example of integrated technologies and methods
(Lekang 2007) .............................................................................................................................. 38
Figure 17: Integration of components in agribusiness................................................................ 38
Figure 18: Cycle of an extensive aquaculture production (FAO 2008)........................................ 39
Figure 19: Cycle of an intensive aquaculture production (FAO 2008) ........................................ 40
Figure 20: Intensive aquaculture system (Source: aquacultures.wordpress.com ) .................... 40
Figure 21: Semi-Intensive aquaculture system (Source: fishfacil.com.br) .................................. 41
Figure 22: extensive aquaculture system (Source: agricultureinformation.com) ...................... 41
Figure 23: Fish fillet machine (Source: Trident Seafoods/KTUU) ................................................ 42
Figure 24: processed fish products (Source: foodprocessingtechnology.com) .......................... 42
Figure 25: automated oyster grading machine (Source: shellquip.com.au) ............................... 43
Figure 26: Excavation of ponds for aquaculture in Brazil (Montagner 2011) ............................. 44
Figure 27: Excavated pounds for aquaculture in Brazil (Source: Magazine “globo rural”) ......... 44
iii
Figure 28: Different types of equipment (filters, drums and nozzles) used in aquaculture
engineering of closed systems (Lekang 2007)............................................................................. 46
Figure 29: main inputs in the 3 main components of the Brazilian aquaculture (Hatching, Farm,
and Processing) source: (SAMPAIO 2008) ................................................................................... 48
Figure 30: Model description of shrimp farming effects in the regional development in Brazilian
municipalities. Adapted from (SAMPAIO 2008) p.5 .................................................................... 49
Figure 31: Formal map of actor relations .................................................................................... 58
Figure 32: Institutions to which aquaculture was subordinated in Brazil before the creation of
the Ministry and Aquaculture (Ostrensky 2008) ......................................................................... 67
Figure 33: Operational procedures for obtaining permission for aquaculture in a national water
body (Dell'Orto 2009) .................................................................................................................. 68
Figure 34: A structured way of looking at the problem through a system analysis can add
important information. ............................................................................................................... 70
Figure 35: system diagram: conceptual framework for system analysis (Enserink 2010) .......... 71
Figure 36: Decomposing objectives for the aquaculture sector into several objectives (objective
tree with criteria in the appendix) .............................................................................................. 71
Figure 37: The system diagram ................................................................................................... 73
Figure 39: The MPA should promote aquaculture information and training also among small
producers (source: MPA) ............................................................................................................ 74
Figure 38: One of means of the Ministry: investing in technical assistance and training.
Demonstration unit in the Santa Fé do Sul, São Paulo (source: cati.sp.gov.br) ........................ 74
Figure 40: Providing credit to start medium farms is another mean of the Ministry (source:
MPA) ............................................................................................................................................ 75
Figure 41: Vietnam aquaculture production through years (source: FAO) ................................ 78
Figure 42: Competent institutions for food safety management on fisheries in Vietnam (Dung
2011) ........................................................................................................................................... 80
Figure 43: Chilean aquaculture production since 1950 (source FAO)......................................... 83
Figure 44: Governmental institutions involved in the development of fisheries and aquaculture
in Chile and their relation (OECD 2009) ...................................................................................... 85

List of tables

Table 1: Positions of Brazil, Vietnam and Chile in the world aquaculture production in 2008 and
2009 (MPA 2012)........................................................................................................................... 6
Table 2: Brazilian Trade Balance for the ensemble of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and other
aquatic invertebrates. Products chapter HS 03 from Aliceweb2 – Brazilian Ministry of
Development, Industry and International Trade. ......................................................................... 8
Table 3: Aquaculture production by type in Brazil 2008-2010 (MPA 2012) ............................... 12
Table 4: Marine aquaculture in Brazil by specie in 2010 (MPA 2012) ........................................ 13
Table 5: Inland aquaculture in Brazil by specie in 2010 (MPA 2012) .......................................... 13
Table 6: Trade balance of fish products in Brazil 2009-2010 (MPA 2012) .................................. 14
Table 7: Fish trade balance in Brazil in 2010 - detailed by categories (MPA 2012) .................... 15
Table 8: Statistics for fish consumption in Brazil 2010-1996 (MPA 2012) .................................. 18
Table 9: Ethics dimensions in fish production (FAO 2005) .......................................................... 21
Table 10: Obstacles and opportunities in the structural characteristics of a network adapted
from (Bruijn and Heuvelhof 2008) .............................................................................................. 29
Table 11: Main legislative acts regarding Brazilian aquaculture (Tiago 2011) ............................ 37
Table 12: 3 types of aquaculture production (AquaCultur 2011) .............................................. 39
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Table 13: 6 types of actors for the actor analysis. ...................................................................... 52
Table 14: Actor’s representatives used in the actor analysis. .................................................... 56
Table 15: Problem formulations and perceptions of actors ...................................................... 60
Table 16: Actor’s resources ......................................................................................................... 63
Table 17: Actor’s interdependencies from the perspective of the Ministry of Fisheries and
Aquaculture ................................................................................................................................. 65
Table 18: Criteria resulting from the objectives tree .................................................................. 72
Table 19: Looking for Brazil's bottlenecks in Vietnam ................................................................ 79
Table 20: Looking for Brazil's bottlenecks in Chile ...................................................................... 84

v
Acknowledgements

I would like to thank to my parents for providing me all the necessary education,
conditions, perspectives and energy to achieve my goals.

To my supervisors: Bert Enserink, Wil Thissen and Martin de Jong for having supported
this work; for having understood my busy schedule and for having provided me the
directions I needed to get this work done.

An extra ‘thank you’ to Bert for all the advices, time and help since my arrival in the
Netherlands.

To my colleagues from the Embassy of Brazil in the Hague for all I learned with them.

To all my friends with whom I am sharing my life since I came to this wonderful land, the
Netherlands!
Summary

Brazil has presently the chance of developing from the start a strong and sustainable
aquaculture sector. Although it has some administrative, technical and economic
challenges to overcome it is undeniable that the country will evolve into a large fish
producer in the coming future. This work will have as objective to identify current
problems of the country in developing its aquaculture through assessing the sector
organization, the most relevant actors and its dynamics. Additionally this thesis will
compare points to two other major fish producers, Vietnam and Chile.

This work makes use of policy analysis tools: desk research, actor analysis and system
analysis. It exposes first the current situation in the Brazilian aquaculture including its
production and market. Then it identifies problems that Brazil needs to overcome for a
sustainable development of a strong aquaculture sector. Here turns to be that
administrative and political problems are currently a major bottleneck where the Ministry
of Fisheries and Aquaculture lies in the center of attention: it is the problem owner of the
development of the Brazilian aquaculture. In this regard an actor analysis is developed to
understand the relationships and points of view from several stakeholders directly or
indirectly connected to the Ministry. Moreover the work will develop a system analysis
around the ministerial possible actions that allow understanding a relation between its
means and the impact on the aquaculture development. This system analysis shows that
there are different means necessary to make aquaculture grow. One (simpler) is related
to investments and another one (more complex) is related to the improvement on policies
for instance to speed up farming license processes. While the system analysis (causal loop
diagram) shows that improving policies is more difficult because of the actors, the actors’
analysis illustrates why that is so. Finally a comparative analysis is made between Brazil
and Chile and Vietnam, where Brazil can positively learn in some important aspects being
the main one, the administrative organization of aquaculture institutions: a strong
ministry instead of responsibilities split among several institutions (environment, water
management, etc.)

By looking to the structural challenges of the sectors and the recently created Ministry of
Fisheries and Aquaculture, Brazil is aiming to foster its fish production at a national level
as it happens already with other successful sectors of agriculture. In this regards it is
concluded that Brazil even with the new ministry creation still has a bureaucratic system
that hinder the release of new licenses for aquaculture production. For this fact
contribute several actors though there is a focus on an important one for the
development of aquaculture projects (IBAMA – Brazilian Environmental Institute) that
tends to block projects from the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture (MPA). The
equivalent of this actor in Chile and Vietnam seems inexistent because the concentration
of powers in one institution.

Through desk research this work compiles information about the bottlenecks of Brazil in
developing this aquaculture in a sustainable way. To achieve this sustainability the
problem depicted on this work is subdivided in components: administrative, technical and
economic. It will be seen that the administrative problems are now the major
contributions on the bottlenecks for the sector development because of far too many
institutions involved. Nevertheless, problems in Brazil are also present in crucial technical
2
aspects like the lack of technical resources and skilled labor. Furthermore economic
problems, such as strong currency, tend to frustrate exportation potential for fish
products. Following the analysis on Brazil, specific evidences are collected from Vietnam
and Chile and a comparative analysis to Brazil is made. This shows that while the sector
administrative organization can be fairly compared between countries; this is not true for
other every single problem.

Chile and Vietnam also proved to have relatively well developed aquaculture industries
compared to Brazil, which provide many jobs and contribute to the national economy.
Brazil can follow these examples and at the same time avoid their associated problems by
moderating its production ambitions as mass production caused sustainability issues in
Chile, and by stimulating equality between farmers to prevent the Vietnamese
inequalities.

3
1 Introduction

Oceans, seas and rivers have been par excellence the source of fish and other aquatic
food for populations over the centuries. Their vastness and abundant natural resources
are however not limitless and for reasons of provision or specific production in large or
short scale, aquaculture has developed. Throughout the times, obtaining food by foraging
in natural ecosystems was substituted by agrarian processes for reasons of greater
efficiency and predictability in the societies and what happen once with fruits and
vegetables, poultry, pork or beef might be bound to happen, in a similar proportion with
fish production.

Nonetheless, the fish production from captivity can be referred as old as many other
agriculture activities, since it was practised already in China during the period of 2000-
1000 B.C. (FAO). Nowadays, however, aquaculture is a fast growing industry because of
shortages of natural fish resources or increasing number of species at risk. The current
worldwide decline in fish catches seems also to be in line with aquaculture production
increase, which is according to FAO the fastest-growing agriculture sector. In 2010
represented nearly half of the world fish supply (FAO Fisheries Dept. 2010).

Production throughout the globe

FAO defined aquaculture as the farming of aquatic organisms including fish, crustaceans,
molluscs and aquatic plants, and when compared to other agriculture activities such as
horticulture or livestock, faces large differences namely in technology, investment or
production environment. But the difference on the fish production to the average
agriculture industry is not only in the setting or conditions. The global production is also
very asymmetric.

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Figure 1: Aquaculture production in the world in 2002 (Source: globaleducationproject.org)

Asia dominates by far the worldwide aquaculture production. In 2008, only China itself
achieved a production of 32.7 million tonnes from aquaculture, which represented nearly
70% of all its fish production, being only 30% from capture (FAO Fisheries Dept. 2010).
China is such a strong country in aquaculture that is commonly excluded from world fish
production statistics and publications for a better perception of all the others. Although
the Chinese figures are massive, there are other countries making the Asia-Pacific region
as the world leader in the aquaculture sector. This region concentrates 89% of world
production in terms of quantity and 79% in terms of value (FAO Fisheries Dept. 2010).
China is then followed by India, Vietnam and Indonesia. On the 2008 top 15 aquaculture
producers, in terms of quantity, the first two non-Asian countries were Norway and Chile,
respectively in 7th and 8th place (FAO Fisheries Dept. 2010). Nonetheless, China’s average
annual growth rate of more than 10% after the 1970’s decreased for half of this value in
the new millennium. A similar decrease has been seen in Europe and North America,
including once-leading countries in aquaculture development as Japan, France and Spain
with diminishing productions.

New comers

According to FAO it is expected that aquaculture will continue to grow in the coming
years, though the rate of increase will decline in some regions. This suggests that while
fish utilization, population growth and food supply will increase (FAO Fisheries Dept.
2010),other major players should appear with a developing potential in aquaculture
production. In South America for example, Chile, is already a major player, but Brazil
5