Productive arrangement of oysters: a comparative study between two communities in southern Brazil

Abstract

The oyster cultivation in Brazil has a great productive concentration in the Southern region of Brazil, however the consolidation of these productive arrangements occurs slowly and with great variation among the producing communities. Scattered information was found on the reasons for the uneven development of smaller arrangements. Therefore, in view of the relevance of the activity and in order to identify the factors responsible for the inequality in the growth of productive arrangements, a descriptive exploratory study was carried out between March and July 2022 with the leaders of two fishing communities in the local productive arrangement - LPA, Cabaraquara, on the Coast of Paraná, Brazil, being one of them a consolidated arrangement and the other one in development. The research revealed that the difference between the productivity of both does not seem to be linked to factors such as proximity to the consumer market, distribution logistics, manpower, producers' ability to articulate with the market or even geoclimatic characteristics. The main factors that limit the consolidation of LPAs are the degree of difficulty in accessing production inputs, the lack of technical assistance and the almost non-existence of public policies for the segment. Although oyster clusters have conditions for growth and consolidation, the presence of arrangements of producers in these regions is not a sufficient condition for local development, requiring the formation of links and interdependent relationships among them. Therefore, especially in the Cabaraquara Community, it is necessary to establish a governance model that allows for positive results in terms of efficiency and competitiveness in the dialogue with other actors outside the producing communities.