{"id":50045710,"date":"2021-08-27T14:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.dialogochino.net\/?p=45710"},"modified":"2021-09-14T13:53:25","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T12:53:25","slug":"45504-international0markets-boost-sustainable-brazil-nut-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/45504-international0markets-boost-sustainable-brazil-nut-production\/","title":{"rendered":"International markets can boost sustainable Brazil nut production"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote to Edivan Kaxarari at the beginning of April. Days passed without the message reaching the intended recipient and I was a little worried. Edivan lives in the Kaxarari Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon, close to the border with Bolivia. Although it is a remote area, the internet connection works. The forest in the protected area has been invaded by<\/a> illegal loggers. In the past, there have been violent conflicts.<\/a> Could something have happened?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, two weeks later, Edivan replied with an excited audio message. He said he had spent 23 days camping in the Amazon rainforest collecting Brazil nuts, the main source of income for the 170 families in the indigenous territory between the states of Acre and Rond\u00f4nia, on the border with Bolivia. \u201cIt was too good us camping there, there were plenty of people collecting, breaking and carrying nuts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Brazil nut collecting guarantees the subsistence of 60,000 families in the Brazilian Amazon, who sell an average of 40,000 tonnes of the native species each year, almost 60% of all production in Amazon countries, according to the Brazilian network Pro-Nuts Dialogues<\/a>. This practice permeates several generations of traditional communities and has been strengthened as a sustainable alternative to commercial agriculture in the region and its deforestation risks. However, it faces challenges of poor coordination and a lack of incentives in the supply chain.<\/p>\n

A recent study<\/a> shows that between 2017 and 2019, the Amazon exported US$298 million worth of products from the \u201cbioeconomy\u201d \u2013 compatible with forest conservation \u2013 including Brazil nuts. The amount seems considerable, according to Salo Coslovsky, the study\u2019s author from New York University, but it is well below its potential and far from comparable with the region\u2019s main economic activities. During the same period, monoculture farming, mining and livestock, as well as paper and pulp produced US$39 billion in exports.<\/p>\n

Brazil nuts reach more than 60 countries, according to an analysis by Di\u00e1logo Chino <\/em>of Brazil\u2019s foreign trade data.<\/a> Exports between January and July 2021 total 7,702 tonnes \u2013 some $21 million in sales \u2013 and are up almost 80% on five years ago. But Brazil has been missing opportunities. Bolivia and Peru, its largest clients, buy the oilseed by extracting the nuts from the husks and exporting it again<\/a>. The US, third in the rankings, also resells part of what it imports<\/a>. Next comes Mainland China and Hong Kong, which experts hope could be a growth market.<\/p>\n

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