tradicionalmenteinovador - Brazil Buyers & Sellers

Room for all
>> Segment of leafy and floral
vegetables points to a rising
consumer trend, where lettuce
and cabbage stand out for
their performance
Contrary to vegetables in general, which experienced slight
reductions in consumption over the past years, the so-called
leafy vegetables are in great demand in the domestic market.
Surveys by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics
(IBGE), conducted in 2002 and 2008, reveal a 29-percent increase
in the acquisition of “leafy and floral vegetables” in most
households, over the period in question, advancing to 3.23 kilos
per person a year in 2008.
Cabbage weighs the most in this group, with a share of 1.03
kg/person/year, amount that registered the least increase. Lettuce
is very close to this item, with 0.91, and it evolved 41.52%
over the six-year period. Coles and rapes grew the most over
the period, reaching 156%, but their annual per capita share
remains at 0.33 kg.
Broccolis was also highly demanded, progressing from 0.15
kg/person/year, just like parsley, to 0.22 kg/person/year. Cauliflower
shrank slightly, and so did beet and watercress, with a
negligible share. Nonetheless, those vegetables classified as
“others” of the same group soared 108%, a final touch to the
good performance of the segment.
Lettuce was the subject of a technical meeting promoted by
Embrapa Vegetables, in Brasília (DF), in early June 2011, which addressed
the production and commercialization challenges of this
vegetable. Professor Fernando César Sala, of the Federal University
of São Carlos, in the State of de São Paulo, recalled that it is the leafy
vegetable most consumed in the world and occupies a prominent
position in Brazil, where it represents a major seed market of the
segment, involving an amount of about R$ 27 million.
In the Country, according to him, a major challenge of research
is the tropicalization of this crop, since there is demand
in the market for varieties of this profile for problematic cultivations
in summer time, as well as for recommendations for different
regions in Brazil and for seed production technologies. Limiting
factors, including rainfalls, humidity levels, temperature,
little sunshine and some diseases, were addressed by agronomist
Romério de Andrade, of the Rural Extension and Technical
Assistance Corporation (Emater), of the Federal District.
60