The fruit that motivates the realization of the Fig Festival is present in 60 properties of family farmers in Nova Petrópolis, as registered by the local Emater/RS office. There are about 38 hectares of cultivated area, which lead to an annual production of more than 450 tons of fruit.
According to Emater/RS, a good part of the fig produced in Nova Petrópolis is destined for the industry, a volume that corresponds to 80%. The other 20% is sold at Ceasa and directly on the properties, in addition to being used in the homemade sweets industry.
“It is a crop that historically has great importance for the rural environment of Nova Petrópolis, since it represents a way to diversify income in many properties and also because it is an ingredient present in several of our colonial products”, says the secretary Municipality of Agriculture and Environment, Jorge Luiz Lüdke.
Among the 60 rural properties producing figs is Nilo and Marina Marcon, in Linha Araripe. He is 60 years old and she is 59, both have the fig present in their families of origin. In the case of Nilo, the grandparents already produced the fruit in large quantities. On Marina’s family land, where she and Nilo live today, the number of fig trees was smaller. “We have expanded over the years”, comments the farmer.
Along with crops such as pumpkin, acacia and eucalyptus, in addition to dairy production, the couple currently grows ten fig varieties in an area of 1.5 hectares, with emphasis on the “pingo de mel” variety.
Marina and Nilo started harvesting the 2023 crop on Monday, January 16, anticipating a volume of 16 tons of fruit. As with most producing families, the volume produced by the couple from Linha Araripe is mostly destined for industry, in addition to selling it in natura on the property itself. A part of the harvest is also frozen, being used throughout the year as an ingredient for products such as cucas, marketed by Nilo and Marina in Fornos de Gramado.
And part of this production will be destined to the 48th Festa do Figo, which takes place on the 4th and 5th of February, at Sociedade Cultural e Esportiva Linha Araripe. “The Fig Festival is very important for us producers, mainly because it gives visibility and publicity to this fruit. Because of the party, Nova Petrópolis is already a reference in figs and those who want to buy and consume end up coming here, and not just during the event”, explains Nilo.
