This paper demonstrates that artisanal/small-scale fisheries face difficulties in accessing public credit programs, which contributes to the use of informal financing mechanisms. The case study conducted Santa Catarina's central-southern coast used semistructured interviews with small-scale fishermen and middlemen, followed by discourse analysis. The study uses concepts from economic sociology to understand the relationships between these two groups of social actors. The results showed that the creation of a specific credit line for fishing within the National Program for the Strengthening of Family Farming (Pronaf, in Portuguese), a demand from the sector, has had low access among fishermen. The study reveals that formal and informal financing systems adopted by small-scale fisheries are embedded in reciprocity relationships. The informal financing systems have been maintained even after the creation of a specific line of government supported credit for artisanal fisheries. The provision of these financial services is associated with fish sales, which reproduces the asymmetric power relationship between fishermen and middlemen. The official credit is accessed by a low number of small-scale fishermen, and the use of informal credit systems unfavorable for fishermen prevail.
Financing; farm credit; small-scale fishing; public policies
