Anuário Brasileiro do Arroz 2011 - Unemat

that impressive. Purchases of 12.3 kilos a year, in 2002,
had fallen to 9.1 kilos in 22009.
The change in habits, resulting from the bustling daily
routine of the population, is the major cause that explains
why the perfect rice-beans pair has lost space on
the Brazilian kitchen tables. “People are more and more
doing their meals out, which does not mean they have
quit eating rice and beans”, comments Embrapa Rice and
Beans researcher Alcido Elenor Wander.
Another relevant factor, in the opinion of the researcher,
is the soaring purchasing power of the people over the
past years. “Under such circumstances, the consumption
of rice tends to drop, as people tend to opt for other products,
which they could not afford in the past”, he reckons.
In the case of black-beans, explains wander, what seems
to discourage the people is the great variation in prices.
According to the researcher, the IBGE figures do not detail
total per capita consumption, but only what happens
at home. Therefore, he points out that 53% of the rice
was consumed at home, in 2002; in 2009, this proportion
had fallen to only 33%. “There is a slight downtrend compared
to 1997/98, when consumption reached 48 kg/person/year,
and in 2010 it remained at 43 kg”, he explains.
With regard to black-beans, Wander emphasizes that
in 2002 consumption at home accounted for 78% of the
total, receding to 54% in 2009. “Since the early 1990s
black-bean consumption has risen slightly, with small
variations in per capita averages”, he observes. The researcher
has it that this behavior stems from price variations,
as well as from minor or major insertions of the
cereal into social programs. With regard to apparent consumption,
he mentions that it was 12.6 kg/person/year in
1990, climbing to 16.9 kg two decades later.
THE TABLE IN THE WORLD The latest official
data released by the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO) on the global consumption
of rice and black-beans date back to 2007. According to
researcher Alcido Elenor Wander, the figures reveal that,
in general, the use of rice as a daily staple in the world
did not recede as much as it did in Brazil, and average
consumption is 53 kg/person/year. “It has remained at
this level for the past fifteen years”, he observes.
Contrary to rice, black beans have suffered steady reductions
in per capita consumption around the world,
which now reaches 2.5 kg, according to FAO numbers.
Wander recalls that it was 3 kg/person/year in the early
1960s.