Brazil seeks to become world’s top fish producer

Jorge Seif Junion, Brazil’s national secretary for Aquaculture and Fishing, said Thursday (Apr. 11) that the  department’s goal is to include Brazil among the world’s main international fish producers. On a live broadcast next on social media, he pointed out that the country’s coastline is gigantic, next to President Jair Bolsonaro.

“We have all the conditions in the world of being the world’s leading [fish producer],” Seif said, further reporting that Brazil will follow the example of China, one of the globe’s top producers in aquaculture.

“We need to turn Brazil into a great producer of fish, in addition to grains and other proteins. With all this potential, we need to grow,” the secretary said. The biological boundaries, he also noted, will be respected, in order not to harm any species.

The pharmaceutical industry

Seif said that the fish production may also be of great help to the pharmaceutical industry. He noted that the country has no industry capable of producing medication from tilapia skin, for instance. The Federal University of Ceará conducted research on the skin of this fish for the treatment of burns.

The work shows the similarities between tilapia skin and human skin regarding the amount of type-I collagen, an important protein in the process of scar healing. This is the first animal skin to be used in burn treatment in Brazil, study coordinators argue.