Agricultura familiar e mercados atacadistas: dinâmicas sociais da Central de Comercialização da Agricultura Familiar (Cecaf/Ceasa) em Recife – Pernambuco

This research analyzes the social dynamics of the commercialization warehouse of family farming (Cecaf), within the scope of Ceasa, considering the social diversity, associative bases, strategies of commercialization and local disputes for the use of space. How do the daily dynamics of commercialization set up in Cecaf and who are the social actors are some of questions that lead this research. This work involved 38 interviewees, among commercial farmers and managers. Created with the purpose to serve exclusively Pronaf beneficiary family farming, Cecaf needed to broaden its target audience, given the scarcity of users that fulfilled this criterion, favoring the installation of a diversity of actors. This commercialization experiences define specific way of life and work which are nourished by a constant learning from the buying and selling strategies and through the relationships established with suppliers and customers. Knowing “everybody”, knowing how to deal with prices of products and the formal and informal rules for use of the “stones” are some of the requirements presented among farmers surveyed. Finally, it was possible to observe that the dynamics of commercialization reproduces mechanisms of dependency and subordination between more capitalized traders and other players.