Water quality is essential for fish farming; Government encourages good environmental and sustainability management practices

Tambaqui represents 90% of this production in Rondonia and makes the state the leader in the national production of this fish

Fish farming is one of the economic activities that most depend on the environment to sustain itself. The quality of the water in the tanks has great interference in the creation of the fish and, consequently, in the quality of the fish that is commercialized.

In Rondônia, the State Government has shown itself to be aware of this reality and launched the Healthy Fish Program, through which it offers specialized assistance to family farm fish farmers, with the analysis of water and fish. Such analyzes help the producer to maintain the sanitary quality of the animals, through the adoption of good environmental and sustainability management practices.

The importance and need for this service goes even further, since water analysis is also a requirement of the Government of Rondônia for fish farmers to obtain environmental licensing from the State Secretariat for Environmental Development (Sedam).

Healthy Fish Program provides three mobile laboratories to analyze water and fish quality

The project is an environmental and economically favorable action for rural producers and for the entire State of Rondônia, because, at the same time as it encourages the preservation of the environment, the environmental quality certificate guarantees greater acceptance of Rondonia’s fish in national and international consumer markets, expanding the economic activities of the fish production chain.

Thus, within the Healthy Fish Program, the Government of Rondônia has three mobile laboratories and, through the Municipal Entity for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension of the State of Rondônia (Emater), offers the analysis service of most of the required parameters, providing direct service to the fish farmer, on his own property. In other words, the analyzes necessary to guarantee the environmental certificate, which before the fish farmer had to pay for a private company to carry out, is now funded by the State itself.

All efforts for the development of fish farming put Rondônia in the spotlight. Today, the state is the largest producer of native fish in captivity and the third largest producer of farmed fish in Brazil. According to the yearbook of the Brazilian Association of Pisciculture, in 2020 the production of native fish in captivity in Rondônia was 65,500 thousand tons. Tambaqui represents 90% of Rondônia’s production and makes the state the leader in the national production of tambaqui, a fish that ranks third in the country’s fish exports.

Between January and July 2021, Rondônia exported 121 tons of tambaqui, totaling US$ 283,649,000, according to data from the Foreign Trade Statistics (Comex Stat), of the Ministry of Economy.

Environmental concern adds value to Rondonia’s fish

According to the Secretary of State for Environmental Development, there are already more than four thousand fish farmers registered in Rondônia. In the last three years, the state has expanded the area destined to fish farming and today has about 16 thousand hectares of water surface.

The activity is more latent in the central regions of the state, where small producers are concentrated, and also in the Jamari Valley, a region where there are large projects, including three fish processing industries, two of them in Ariquemes.

In other words, by encouraging fish farmers to adopt good environmental management practices, with a focus on sustainability, the Government of Rondônia draws national and international attention to the quality of its fish.

*Translated by Lana Caroline Amorim Gomes Sarábia