Tourism and regional foods are alternatives for the economy in the Amazon, experts say

Marcela Leiros – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – Tourism and regional food industry are the two main alternatives for the development of the economy in Amazonas, besides the Manaus Free Trade Zone (MFTZ), according to experts to CENARIUM MAGAZINE. However, even with the potential of the two segments, economists, technicians and representatives of civil society say there is lack of political will to enhance these potentials.

Federal Lawmaker and member of the Lula Government transition team in the Regional Development group, José Ricardo (PT) lists that Amazonas has characteristics and biodiversity that attract tourists from all over the world, with its rivers, forests and indigenous people, but lack investment in basic infrastructure to receive visitors.

“You have an enormous potential, little explored, in face of what has been done so far, of what exists”, he says, adding still that the State already suffers, usually, with unstable telephone services, internet, expensive logistics and even precariousness in health care and public safety.

“Whether for tourism or for any other productive segment, we have to solve some issues like communication, since the internet is bad, the telephone service is bad. Second is the issue of transport, logistics. It is very expensive, there is no proper planning for air and river transport, and this makes many activities unviable in general. And you still have the energy issue, although this has reduced a lot, we have to have something more definitive”, he said.

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The economist and state lawmaker Serafim Correa (PSB-AM) goes in the same ‘route’ José Ricardo when the subject is tourism and the obstacles of distance and lack of structure. He highlights that the potential of Amazonas in the segment is a path, but has much to be traveled.

“We need to build everything in Amazonas tourism. The base it has is very embryonic, we do not have a calendar, a roadmap, we are not organised, our human material is left to be desired when compared to other countries”, he contributes.

Potential food

In September this year, the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) published a study showing that food products and beverages originating from the nine States comprising the Legal Amazon have the potential to conquer markets in the United States, China, Japan and European countries, such as Germany. The survey analyzed the food segment of products such as beans, sesame and black pepper; coffee and cocoa; açaí, guaraná and pineapple; Brazil nuts; flours and cassava preparations; and fish.

Besides tourism, José Ricardo and Serafim Côrrea believe in the potential, in the Amazon region, of the food industry with regional raw material, such as fruits and fish. The former emphasizes that the growth of this economic matrix depends essentially on the development in the area of research, possible through investments in institutions such as the National Institute for Amazon Research (Inpa) and the National Institute for Amazon Research (Embrapa).

“The industries that we have in the PIM [Manaus Industrial Pole] have a characteristic: they are products with technology developed abroad, audio, video, two wheels, these traditional segments that sustain the state. We have to take care of having projects that involve the use of regional raw materials, regional products, biodiversity, all this potential that involves the issue of our forests. This goes through research”, he highlights.

Côrrea also defends the potential of regional foods and cites the lawyer Evandro Carreira, Brazilian politician who was senator for Amazonas, who called, in his speeches, for the use of floodplains for planting short-period crops and the implementation of fish farming in net-tanks, lakes, streams and dams.

“I see that it is necessary to intensify fish farming to feed the world, which was a thesis of Evandro Carreira 50 years ago”, highlights the economist.

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Economic framework

Economist Inaldo Seixas, who is also part of the Regional Development group in the government transition, disagrees with the term ‘economic matrix’ used to refer to potential economic segments. For him, ‘economic vectors’ is more ideal to name them.

“When you talk about a matrix, it is something that can link a series of economic activities to generate employment, income, revenue, development and much more. So, I do not see that there is room, given our distance, our problems of logistics, communication, internet and energy in the interior, to talk about economic matrix, unless there was another very powerful framework with tax incentives, concrete funding, of attractiveness and attraction of companies from various sectors”, he explains.

Even knowing that there is not, still, an economic vector able to compete or replace the model of Manaus Free Zone, Seixas highlights there are sectors with great potential in the Amazon, as the circular economy, creative industry, tourism, fishing and oil and gas, but he adds that local industry needs to become attractive and viable for companies.

“They have potentialities that you need to make the diagnosis of why companies do not come to settle and, from there, take a series of tax measures, that may allow companies to want to invest in an industry in Manacapuru, that enhances the Solimões chain above, fishing and fish farming, to be able to can fish and export to Brazil and the world. There, yes, you develop”, concludes.