Manaus is the main commercial center for fish prodution in the state of Amazonas. However, its characteristics of commercialization have not been evaluated in order to assist the development of the fishery sector. The present paper presents these characteristics to establish a historical referential about this organization and to subsidize governmental planning. Interviews were performed with several players, in order to cover the alternatives that exists for fish provisioning. There are four types of agents of fish wholesalers in Manaus: the fishing boat, the middleman-auctioneer, the middleman-seller and the freezing house. The middleman-auctioneer is a central agent. He finances the fishing trips and the commercialization operations or act as the middleman between the producer-fishermen and fish merchants. Exception to this rule is the autonomous riverine fishers, who uses personal resources, including boat and gear. This fisher sells prodution to consumers without intermediaries. In the retail trade, the street market salesman is the most important, considering that the Panair Fish Market in Manaus is responsible for providing about 20% of the fish in natura in Manaus. Supermarkets and small merchants are other retail agents. Although their participation in commercialization of the prodution is small, financially it is not small due to the fact that they sell to middle class markets fish with joint value with higher prices than those of the street market salesman.
Artisanal fishery; commercialization; fish products; micro economy; Manaus