An In-Depth Look into Central do Cerrado

As part of our segment on diving into some of our seed projects, we give you a closer look into the workings of our fifth one, Wisdom and Flavors of Cerrado, of the Central do Cerrado cooperative. (For our last project, click here, and for our previous entry on Wisdom and Flavours, click here.)

Central do Cerrado was first established in 2004, as an informal collective of 19 community-based projects based in the Federal District of Brazil, where Brasília is located. They were beneficiaries of the Small Social Projects Program (PPPEcos), operated by the Institute for Society, Population and Nature — ISPN, which together sought an alternative for products. At present, the Central has 21 community organizations in its framework, located in the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Pará, Goias, Piaui, Mato Grosso do Sul and Minas Gerais and operates in the development of 25 value chains from extractivism, agroextractivism and of traditional family agriculture, among them the babassu chain. It has 35 other non-cooperative suppliers, which together with the associates allow the Central to offer to the market a mix of more than 200 products. These include fields like retail, supplying domestic industry as well as exporting, and food services (like snacks, cocktails and meals) in the segments of food, cosmetics, personal hygiene and handicrafts. To do so, it operates on two fronts, one located in Brasília which serves the virtual store, points of sale, restaurants, industries, export and food services and another in São Paulo, with two resale points and the supply to restaurants.

In order to guarantee the volume, regularity, legality, price and standardization demands demanded by the market, it was necessary for the cooperative to act in other chain links, in addition to commercialization, locally supporting the associated enterprises and partners in its productive and commercial structuring , thus enabling a qualified supply of products and security in the negotiations and establishment of commercial contracts.

Another front undertaken by the cooperative is the development of products, considering the need to add value and enable innovation and the launch of new products for the market. The cooperative’s Product Development Laboratory focuses on supplying the Central brand of Cerrado and developing productive technologies that are transferred to the associated enterprises and partners, collaborating with the correct composition of production costs, sensorial, sanitary and aesthetic quality of the products and the standardization required to meet specific markets. From the agglutinated organizations that make up the project, the Inca Cooperative of the Babaçu Coco Breaking Women (CIMQCB) and three other ventures linked to the Association in Settlement Areas in the State of Maranhão (ASSEMA), are associated with the Central Cooperative of the Cerrado, these enterprises supply the cooperative with mesocarp, olive oil, food oil, cosmetic oil, handicrafts, soap and soap based on babassu coconut.

From the products of the babassu value chain, worked by Central do Cerrado, a major highlight is the babassu coconut mesocarp, which over a decade has passed from a local consumption product, totally unknown to the general public; another within the case of the Mother Earth Industry, blends for cakes were developed, signed by a renowned chef, and had mesocarp as a base. The Mother Earth brand cookies have been served continually on Gol Airlines flights. The cooperative’s activities were fundamental in negotiating with the industry in question, developing standards of quality, supply and pricing, as well as distribution logistics and fiscal support to comply with this contract. The demand for babassu coconut mesocarp is increasing and the associate already operates at its limit of supply. The same set of efforts for the babassu coconut mesocarp has been applied by the Central to its associates, and has generated results on a larger scale in the golden, baru and pequi grass chains.

The cooperative actively promotes the socioeconomic development of traditional communities, indigenous peoples and family farmers, through the sustainable use of natural resources of Brazilian bioversity with an initial focus on the Cerrado biome, which is famous for its tropical savannah. It has a showcase in São Paulo for Brazilian socio-biodiversity products, which enabled the cooperative to perceive a growing demand in both the national and international market for healthy products with added socio-environmental value, which has especially high demand within Brazil, the largest consumer market in Latin America. Its products follow the concept recognized worldwide by the Slow Food Movement (in direct contrast to fast food). The way it works is to make sure that the given process in order to produce goods — whether they be personal, mechanical, or industrial — that are above all good, clean and fair products. ‘Good’ in the sense of sensorial quality, taste and texture (the kind you just can’t get from fast food) and ‘clean’ in the sense of being produced by practices that are not predatory, are free of pesticides, promote fair remunerations for those who produce them, and are affordably priced for consumers.

When it comes to the commercialization of products, Central do Cerrado seeks to eliminate intermediate agents in the productive sector, (or “middle-men”) who end up exploiting farmers by promoting undervalued prices and retaining the profit margin applied in the market. Therefore, rents are better distributed within family units. The cooperative has high geographical capillarity, that is, it is distributed over a large area of the terreitório do cerrado, which stretches across much of the interior of Brazil. It generally has three market niches: School food in Brasília, the export of pequi and baru, and the distribution to differentiated points of resale, which meet the demand for natural products with added socio-environmental value.

Central do Cerrado is unique from its competitors because of its prioritization of socio-environmental value. Several other cooperatives exist that are structurally similar to those of the Central do Cerrado. But those that exist in the market are focused on commercialization for resale in conventional markets, which do not follow strongly a socio-environmental proposal. Yet this puts Central do Cerrado at a disadvantage. Existing competitors, due to the formatting (uses of chemical preservatives) of the products in the market accessed usually reach lower prices and with a greater pre-sale time. However, the market is generally shifting in Central do Cerrado’s favor. Of which, it operates in two fields: first, the differentiated products which has added socio-environmental value and for customers that value nutritional, healthy and natural aspects, and second, the public institutional market, through the PNAE (National School Feeding Program, for schoolchildren across the country). The packaging of its products are developed to attend to each marketplace while in consideration of issues of visual identity of the cooperative and compliance with the legislation of packaging and labeling. It has a standardization in the primary and secondary packaging of its products and technical data sheets that characterize the product for sale. Generally, the consumers of Central do Cerrado are distributed throughout the region, with greater focus on the metropolitan areas of São Paulo and Brasília. In order for products to reach customers, Central do Cerrado executes the distribution via the Post Office or provides its own fleet of vehicles or through outsourced distribution and logistic companies, depending on the volume of the product to be placed in a given market.

Meet some of the wonderful workers in Central do Cerrado:

Ildete

Living in the middle Mearim, in Maranhão, Ildete before becoming a collaborator of the Central cooperative of the Cerrado, was a coconut cracker. Proud of her roots, she says she decided to move to the Federal District with the dream of studying and being able to help her family. Today she has a fundamental role in the cooperative, where she is responsible for the service and for the relationship with the associated producer communities that are spread throughout 8 Brazilian states. Always smiling and willing, Ildete displays the products she herself helped pack and label with the satisfaction of those who love what she does.

Marcia

Marcia (36 years old) was born in Pindamoiangaba, -SP, where she lived until adolescence and went to accompany her family, who went to the Central Plateau in search of a better life. When her father joined the Landless Movement, she moved to the land that is currently home to Sabores do Cerrado, a project of women who gather to produce tasty recipes made with ingredients native to the Brazilian Cerrado. Marcia has been a collaborator on the project for 15 years. She tells us that in her youth she had the dream of studying gastronomy (which was not possible), so she feels fulfilled by being able to contribute to this initiative by offering her culinary gifts.

Maria

Maria de Lurdes, known as “Lurdinha”, is 59 years old and has collaborated with the Sabores do Cerrado project for 20 years. She is a partner who owns a farm in the Colonia 1 community, where the project was born. She says that, despite her age, she feels very willing and satisfied with this work and can be useful to her community.

The Sabores do Cerrado project is an initiative of women who, more than 20 years ago, gathered to produce and sell tasty recipes made with native spices from the Brazilian Cerrado. Organic pequi, buriti and jatobá are some of the ingredients used in homemade preparations, baked in a single furnace that produces on average 100 kilos of biscuits per day. Currently, the group of more than 15 women generates part of the income of the Colonia 1 community, a former settlement of the MST, which had its land expropriated in 1998. They say they feel carried out for helping their families through this work and also for having chance to make their talents available to the community.

Check out the cooperative in action below:

Thanks for taking the time to learn about these remarkable people! Be sure to check back soon to learn even more!