Fair Trade for Babassu Breakers in Brazil

Fair Trade for Babassu Breakers in Brazil Female: This is a Babassu. Babassu trees are indigenous to Brazil but that fruit are highly versatile sparked a brutal conflict between rich landowners and landless settlers. For villagers, the nut were their only source of income. So, protecting the land and trees was non-negotiable. As with Mexican coffee produces, this hands-on success story merges from strong organization coupled with a good product. It is hard to imagine that less than 20 years ago, life with the Babassu Breakers was under serious threat. Anxious to increase that profits from cattle, landowners challenged the villages traditional right to get their nuts so they could grab more grazing hand. Maria De Sousa We were in such a difficult situation that we cannot get access anyway to make our living, to collect the Babassu nuts and break the Babassu. Female: The struggle turned bloody, eight people died in the fight for free Babassu. While the men struggled with landowners in the villages, the women organized a legal battle. In 1986, the courts finally ruled that villagers had the right to harvest the nuts. It was the women’s organization that laid foundations of - -, the cooperative behind the current successive Babassu, it looks a way to earn the most from the nut and its tree. Maria Zuleide S. Silva: I used just to break the seeds but it did not earn enough money and we used to just break the seeds because we did not know any other ways to use the nut. Then when we stated to use it in the skin, it started to make more money, especially in the summer. Raimundo Ernoni Neto: We used the inner skin to make flour, cakes and porridge. It is very nutritious. And the charcoal that is from the outer skin we use it here in our kitchen and also in power stations because it is stronger and has greater heating power than other vegetable charcoals we find in this region. And the dried leaves from the palm tree, we use it as roofs for our houses. Female: Capouch has also found a way using the leaves to make decorative paper for folders, bags and soapboxes. Capouch makes soap from babassu oil. This oil pressed from the nuts is the most important byproduct. Capouch’s biggest break came when it won a contract to supply a UK Company with Babassu oil. Male: We sell the oil on the Brazilian Market for roughly $1.50 but when we export part of this oil out of Brazil to England, we can get better value for our oil that helps us to increase our family budgets because the British company pays us $3.00. Female: The deal gives villagers a fair price and to secure income. But at the local store, the nut itself can still be used as cash. Capouch now represents over 500 families. At the end of the year they all got there share of the profits. Female: We would die without the cooperative. What would we do? We are old and fragile women breakers. Our mothers used to break the nuts to raise their kids and I’m breaking the nuts to raise my daughters. Male: Today we consider that the coop is the salvation. This raises the self-esteem of the families because they are no longer feeling ashamed to call themselves Babassu Breakers. They are not ashamed of being ruled workers because today we produce and we sell our own products.