Portuguese fishing and shipbuilding companies will transfer technology to their counterparts in Ceará in the short term. This is the good news that the president of the Federation of Industries of Ceará (Fiec), Ricardo Cavalcante, brought from Lisbon and Porto, where he was in meetings with the elite of Portuguese business in both sectors.

Leading a delegation of fellow businessmen from the cold meat industry in Ceará, which also included Senai's general director, Paulo André Holanda, and Fiec's Innovation director, Sampaio Filho, Ricardo Cavalcante declared that the future of the world - and of the Ceará, too - is linked to the economy of the sea. "In Ceará, we currently have 3,500 fishing vessels, whose average age is 25 years, that is, we are very late.

To modernize this fleet, we need, among other things, a good partnership, and this is what the Portuguese naval industry promises us.” The president of Fiec participated in Lisbon at the Conference on the Economy of the Sea, organized by Pricewaterhouse.

He was impressed by the information that 65% of the world's protein comes from the oceans. "Fiec is at the forefront of this issue in Brazil," said Ricardo Cavalcante. Ceará - in his opinion - has a bright future in the area of marine economy, mainly because the State Government and Fiec itself maintain conversations with international companies in the naval and fishing sectors.

Portugal's fishing industry exports $1.2 billion worth of fish; o Ceará, only US$ 87 million in lobster, tuna and goldfish. But when European and North American companies dock here to invest in fishing schools and in the capture and processing of fish - with modern boat fleets - "our economy of the sea will take a great leap in quality, I have no doubt", concluded Ricardo Cavalcante.