It is now a material very coveted by the international fashion industry. It can grow more than two meters long and weigh more than 200 kilos. The fish used for luxury garments is called Piracuru. A garment can cost up to a thousand dollars. But fishermen receive just two dollars per kilo. Because?
The Piralucu, or Arapaima, is a species seen in Brazil as the protagonist of a sustainable fishing model. It can only be captured 30% of adult fish every year in designated areas, leaving the rest to replenish populations. However, communities fishermen earn very little money with this fishing.
Luxury fashion
During generations, the Pyrarucu was a basic food, and its skin was discarded as a residue. But that changed when designers began to use it as an alternative to traditional leather. The market is very concentrated: 95 % of Piralucu's skin sales come from only seven processing plants. But only 5 % involve community associations.
Most of the production is exported, mainly to the United States and Mexico, for the manufacture of jeans. According to the company, luxury items only represent 5% of sales.
Companies indicate that they hope to help communities in the future to develop the technical capacity to separate the skin from the fish from the meat. "Our function is not only to buy the skins, but to invest in the Amazon, train the workers and support sustainable fishing," they say. But there are still "significant challenges" in the production chain. The design, specialized manufacturing, logistics and other costs raise the price of final products.
Fair policies
«There is still an important gap that can only be filled effectively through public policies. We want the initial links of the chain to access processing technologies and thus add value to their products, ”they added. Ana Alice Oliveira de Britto leads the Association of Rural Producers of Carouari (ASPROC). "Maybe in the future, in addition to selling fish meat, we also process the skin," he says. It represents 800 families from 55 riverside communities.
The fish used for luxury garments is an opportunity, but it could also end in a conflict. "If this activity does not provide fair remuneration, society could lose an important ally in the conservation of the Amazon," adds Oliveira. The local population "could devote themselves to more harmful activities for the environment to keep their families."
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