Fish farming complex dedicated to breeding and processing of Amazon regional fish

Although the Brazilian territory contains 12% of the Earth’s superficial water and includes almost 7,400 km (4,600 miles) of Atlantic ocean coastline, as of 2014, 70% of the country’s fish and seafood consumption comes from abroad. Furthermore, most of the fish produced in the country, species such as tilapia, is alien to its original fauna.

Aquaculture has always been a relevant activity in the Acre state, where Peixes da Amazônia S.A. is located. Over the past few decades, the state developed various initiatives to support and structure this sector, such as building tanks in smallholder’s farms, training and dissemination of techniques for communities, associations and cooperatives.

However, the full development of aquaculture would always be deterred by the lack of proper industrial and logistics facilities to process, store and market the regional fish produced. Thus, fish production in Acre ended up being a seasonal activity, focused on the production of lower-valued fish sold in specific festive dates during the year with no value added.

This situation led to reduced and seasonal fish farming income for local communities limited the potential size of the sector in the region and did not provided any guarantee for the quality of the fish produced. It became clear that an anchor industrial company was needed to further develop and consolidate this important sector in Acre.

Peixes da Amazônia S.A. was created in 2011 and aims to develop and produce Amazon regional fish species for local and international consumption. The three operating units include a 15 million smolts a year production facility, a 40.000 ton per year fish feed industry and a 20.000 ton per year fish processing plant. The company has distinguished itself in three main ways:

  • The shareholding structure of the company includes private investors (such as a private equity fund and local businessmen) but also a state development agency and a regional fish farming cooperative. The regional cooperative is comprised of individual cooperatives totaling almost 2,500 families that work with fish farming
  • Focus on research and development of new commercial fish species and specialized fish feed. We highlight the development of new reproduction techniques to produce pirarucu (a regional fish that is listed as an endangered species) and the development of customized feed for different types of fish using the concept of precision nutrition. This new feed will result in a differentiated growth performance, with better feed conversion rates, optimizing the use of resources with increased sustainability and improved profitability for producers
  • The company’s potential suppliers are comprised of 3,000 small, medium and large fish farmers, for whom the company provides best in class smolts and fish feed, technical and production assistance, and assurance of purchase of all fish produced

The structuring of Peixes da Amazônia S.A. agro-industrial complex has strengthening the sector in Acre since the company began operations in April 2015. Smolt and fish feed costs for our partners have decreased by as much as 30% compared to their previous cost (when they were bought outside the state of Acre), while maintaining good operational margins for the company.

The outlook is bright for a large impact in terms of income generation. The regional represents 2,500 family farmers with potential to be part of Acre’s aquaculture supply chain. Studies point to a potential net income of R$ 11,000 per year per hectare for small scale production.

It is expected that a fully structured aquaculture supply chain will have a significant contribution to reduce deforestation rates in Acre since fish farming is highly concentrated in terms of area footprint, requires no further deforestation to be implemented and provides a significant income, especially for smallholder farmers.