Marli Moreira
Reporter - Agência Brasil

São Paulo - Brazil, in spite of its thousands of kilometers of coastline (almost 7,500), is not a great fishing nation. However, over the last three it has moved up from being the world's 27th biggest fish producer to 24th, and minister of Fish, José Fritsch, tells Agência Brasil that within 10 years Brazil could increase production tenfold. At the moment total fish production in Brazil is one millions tons annually. That means it could be 9 to ten million tons by 2016, says Fritsch.

The minister has been holding conferences around the country where he meets with people in the sector to discuss ways to increase production. He made his comments at the 14th conference in a series of 27 that are scheduled to take place. Fritsch says everyone he talks to is enthusiastic and mentions the progress that has been made under the Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva administration. "It was the right thing to do when the government decided to make fish production a priority. It is a sector that can generate jobs and income," declared Fritsch. And by giving the sector attention, there has been an improvement in quality, he says, "Not to mention the fact that Brazilians are eating more fish. The average per person has risen from 6.8 kilos to 8 kilos, and the tendency is for further growth," concluded the minister.

Translation: Allen Bennett