Marajó Island, surrounded by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Amazon River, holds a universe of legends, traditions, customs and delicacies of its own. One of these treasures is Marajó cheese, made from buffalo milk and renowned for its smoothness.
The Caminhos da Reportagem team went to this region of Pará to discover its charms, the way of making the cheese and the history behind the product, which in 2021 won the seal of Geographical Indication (IG) from the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). ).
Two types of cheese are produced on the island: butter and cream cheese. The main difference between them is the use of bottled butter in the recipe. “cream cheese is less greasy, has more creaminess”, says Eduardo Portal, manager of Latícinios Portal, defending the product he manufactures. In the market for just over a year, the cheese factory sells to municipalities in Pará and São Paulo. Eduardo says that the certification brought visibility and the conquest of new markets, beyond Soure, in Marajó: “It is very gratifying to see that a dream is becoming reality”. The influence of the seal on sales is also linked to the originality of the cheese. Rubens Magno, superintendent of Sebrae in Pará, explains that the GI endorses that, in only one region, the product can be made in a certain way: “It is a recognition that confirms ancestry”, he emphasizes.
Prudêncio Paixão, owner of Queijaria do Prudêncio, has been producing butter cheese for 25 years, the way he learned from his ancestors. “My day starts at three in the morning working at the cheese factory. Around six-thirty, we go to the corral to collect the milk and, at seven o’clock, I already have the first batch of cheese on the fire”, he says. With Marajó cheese, entrepreneur Francisco Moya makes a cheese bread that is half Minas Gerais, half Marajoara; Chef Jerônima Barbosa cooks marajoara steak and other typical dishes of the local gastronomy at the Bacuri restaurant; and Joniel Nascimento won the networks with his Ice Buffalo ice cream, which has the German buffalo as a poster boy and fan.
Symbol
In the largest fluviomarine archipelago in the world, buffaloes have become a symbol and a major attraction of the island. The herd exceeds that of oxen and the number of heads corresponds to 38% of the national total, according to the IBGE. They are on farms, on the streets, on Marajoara police mounts, in handicrafts and on tourist tours. At Fazenda São Jerônimo, which has 400 hectares and different biomes, one of the most popular tours takes tourists to swim with the animal. “I wanted to show a little bit of Marajó. As? Igarapés, beaches, mangroves and countryside”, says Raimundo Brito, owner of the farm.
Buffaloes were introduced to Marajó at the end of the 19th century and have adapted to the region’s hot and humid climate. Today, they drive the island’s economy and, for Tonga Gouvêa, an agronomist and cheese producer, they had the ability to keep people in the countryside: “He has the quality of producing cheap and adaptable protein; it’s a spectacular species,” he believes. Alongside his daughter Gabriela Gouvêa, president of the Marajó Milk and Cheese Producers Association, he manages the Mironga Farm, where tourists experience the so-called “experience”, in which they learn about the history of the family, the buffaloes, the cheeses and try what the farm produces. “Marajó goes beyond the territory. Marajó is feeling. You need to allow yourself to live listening to the sounds we have here, feeling the buffalo, eating the buffalo things. There’s no way I can say what this is, unless you come to live”, says Gabriela.
The episode Uma slice de Marajó, from Caminhos da Reportagem, airs today at 10 pm on TV Brasil.
