Completed
Unini Brazil Nut Producers
Seeks to strengthen the Brazil nut value chain in the Unini River Extractive Reserve (RESEX do Rio Unini) in Barcelos (AM).
Location
Location
Community
The project beneficiaries are men, women, and young extractivists from the Mixed Agroextractivist Cooperative of the Unini River – COOMARU, who collect or process Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa), and are also involved in the management of pirarucu, cassava flour, bananas, and other biodiversity products.
COOMARU manages the Reference Unit – Central Agroextractivist Unit of the União dos Moradores do Rio Unini – CAUMORU, a Brazil nut processing facility located in the Patauá community, Unini River RESEX. The cooperative was created to enable the economic development of the Unini River by promoting local economic activities.
Species
Brazil Nut (Bertholletia excelsa)
A native Amazonian tree, also known as Castanha-do-Pará or Brazil nut. Brazil is currently the world’s second largest producer, after Bolivia. During the harvest, groups known as castanheiros travel upriver to the nut groves to collect mature nuts from the ground. The nuts are carried in baskets on their backs to the “breakers,” where the seeds are extracted.
Once the bags or cans are full of nuts, they are transported back to the processing facility. Post-harvest procedures include drying, storage, and transportation for commercialization.
Activities
Improvement of the physical and productive infrastructure of CAUMORU (processing plant)
With the investment in CAUMORU’s structuring, it became possible to meet the requirements of MAPA (Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply) for sociobiodiversity products, opening the doors of the cooperative to the international market and resulting in greater profit margins for its members. It also made it possible to begin implementing seals and certifications, such as organic production, which add value to the final product due to their market appeal.
Support to COOMARU during the harvest season through working capital for the acquisition of raw material and processing of Brazil nuts
Before the project, due to the lack of working capital, the processing plant was able to acquire and operate only a portion of the raw nuts produced by nut gatherers, while the remainder was purchased by intermediaries. The support provided for the 2022/23 harvest allowed the plant to remain in operation, with better use of its capacity, ensuring income for the families of nut gatherers and cooperative members, while concentrating the production and processing of Brazil nuts within the Rio Negro basin, thus strengthening the regional economy.
Strengthening the administrative, accounting, and marketing management of COOMARU (cooperative)
COOMARU used the infrastructure of FVA’s offices for its management activities, and the goal was to contribute to maintaining this process through the exclusive dedication of one (01) administrative technician and one (01) accountant hired as a service provider. The objective was to keep COOMARU’s administrative, accounting, and commercial routines up to date and in compliance with current laws and regulations.
Impact
100
Brazil nut gatherers living along the Unini River benefited from the project’s actions.
79%
of MAPA’s requirements met for sociobiodiversity product processing plants, opening new markets for the cooperative’s products.
4.3
tons of Brazil nuts processed.
03
commercial and institutional events counted on the participation of the cooperative members; throughout the project they also participated in two (02) external events, in addition to organizing one (01) event of their own.
53
cooperative members will supply raw Brazil nuts
Grupo Boticário
One of the world’s largest beauty groups, Grupo Boticário is a Brazilian company present in 50 countries. It owns the brands O Boticário, Eudora, Quem Disse, Berenice?; BeautyBox, Vult, O.u.i, Dr. JONES, Truss and the marketplace Beleza na Web, and also operates with licensed products such as Australian Gold and its B2B division. This interaction between different brands, active ingredients, platforms, a network of franchisees, representatives, distributors, retailers, sellers and suppliers forms Grupo Boticário’s beauty ecosystem, which also offers digital business management solutions for Brazilian retail through its brands Mooz, Casa Magalhães and GAVB. It has more than 15,000 direct employees and over 4,000 points of sale in 1,780 Brazilian cities.
Fundação Vitória Amazônica
A non-profit civil society organization that has worked for 30 years on socio-environmental innovation at different scales in the Amazon. It develops projects in research, social organization, education, socio-economic development and public policy, focusing on solving local and regional problems through sustainable initiatives aimed at building an alternative development model for the Amazon region.
VBIO.eco
A bioeconomy platform that enables projects to add value to Brazilian biodiversity. It has a multidisciplinary team with more than 12 years of experience in project management and corporate communication. Its work has enabled the implementation of 23 biodiversity valorization projects and created a network of over 500 organizations and companies active in socio-environmental causes.