Consumption and knowledge profile of native and exotic fruits

Abstract

The third-largest country in the production of fresh fruit in the world, Brazil stands out for having an ample capacity of adaptation of exotic fruit trees, due to its edaphoclimatic conditions, which added to already established cultural practices, allows the achievement of high yields. In addition, the country has one of the largest agrobiodiversities in the world, having native fruit species with high potential for consumption exploitation, however, many times these fruits do not receive any value and are neglected by popular ignorance, presenting low participation in the fruit market. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify the pattern of fruit consumption, analyze popular knowledge about exotic and native fruit trees and verify the potential for insertion of native species from Brazil in the fruit market. It was observed that the consumption of fruit is lower than that recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), is composed mostly of exotic fruit acquired in supermarkets. Despite the lack of understanding of the terms of fruit classification based on the center of origin, the research participants, consisted mostly of people with higher education, understand which species belong to the Brazilian flora and which ones have been introduced in the national territory, and demonstrate awareness of the importance of native species and the barriers that prevent insertion in the market in larger quantities and affirm that they would like to consume more native fruits, which demonstrates the potential of Brazilian fruits.