RONAP, Brazil Nut Co-operative, Peru

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“Life has changed since the co-operative started and we began selling to Fairtrade… the premium helps us a lot with the costs families face and improves the lives of all our members in some way. It means that children who weren’t able to study before because of costs can now go to school and get the education they need to make progress in life. Through workshops people are learning that Fairtrade is exactly that, a fairer type of trade that brings an additional social premium. People are saying ‘Me too! I want to benefit from Fairtrade and to sell a quality product.’ I’m positive about the future. Things are improving for us because we’re learning about production and costs; we’re working with other co-operatives, which strengthens our values and self-esteem. All of this means we’re now in the position to strengthen our organisation.”

                                                                          Elvira Camilla Yatto Deviscara, Secretary, RONAP

Introduction

RONAP © Eduardo Martino

Members of RONAP are licensed to gather brazil nuts that grow wild in the Amazon rainforest of Peru. The nuts, known locally as Amazon nuts, are shelled, processed and exported by their partner Candela, an alternative trading organisation.

The international brazil nut industry

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Brazil nuts only grow in a specific area of the Amazon rainforest encompassed by Bolivia, Brazil and Peru. The trees grow up to 50 metres in height and live for up to 1,000 years. Each tree produces up to 1,300 grapefruit-size pods each containing 20-40 individual brazil nuts. The pods drop to the forest floor during the rainy season from January to March. They are collected by nut gatherers who fill bags weighing up to a back-breaking 70kg which are carried on their backs through narrow forest tracks or by boat to shelling and drying factories.

A fall in the rubber market, the main economic activity in these areas of the Amazon, has resulted in substantial deforestation as forest is cleared for cattle grazing or growing soya. Nut gatheringplays a vital part in attempts to preserve the rainforest by providing local communities with a means of earning a living that doesn’t involve cutting down precious timber resources. Like most agricultural commodities, brazil nuts are highly vulnerable to the boom-and-bust price fluctuations of the international market. A stable market and a fair price for brazil nuts ensure that the Amazon ecosystem is conserved despite the commercial pressures encroaching on it.

The brazil nut supply chain has developed the expertise to ensure the nuts meet health and safety standards and retain the quality required by the export market. Timely transport is critical in order to avoid toxin formation and appropriate storage facilities must be used to protect the nuts from the extreme climatic conditions they are exposed to. Proper drying techniques are necessary to preserve the quality of the nuts and provide a consistent product. In 2006 around 19,000 tonnes of shelled brazil nuts were exported around the world, with a value of $17m (FAO).

Brazil nuts in Peru

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In 2006 Peru exported 3,000 tonnes of shelled brazil nuts, with a value of $12m (FAO). The US is the major market followed by the EU.

Brazil nuts grow naturally in a 68,000 hectare area of the Madre de Dios region of south-eastern Peru. Around 1,200 people are involved in gathering the nuts, mainly family groups but also some teams of hired labour. A further 20,000 people, a quarter of the region’s population, depend directly or indirectly on brazil nuts.

Nut gathering provides around 65% of a family’s income, the rest coming from farm labouring, timber logging or other casual work. Unlike in Brazil and Bolivia, the gatherers don’t have legal ownership of the land but are granted a government concession or lease which gives them the rights to collect brazil nuts from an area of up to 3,000 hectares, for a period of 40 years in the case of RONAP members. In return they act as stewards and must comply with a forestry management plan designed to ensure production in the forests is sustainable and environmentally responsible.

Background to RONAP

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RONAP is the Spanish acronym for Organisation of Organic Brazil Nut Gatherers of Peru. It was founded by 42 nut gatherers in April 2003 and formally registered as a co-operative in February 2004.

Before they formed RONAP, nut gatherers worked individually and sold their nuts for whatever price they could get. A combination of high production and stricter EU import regulations related to health concerns saw the price of brazil nuts fall to $0.63/lb in 2001 having been $1.65 six months earlier. It was in response to this that the nut gatherers began the process of organising themselves - by working together in co-operatives nut gatherers save on costs such as transport and can increase their incomes by reducing their dependence on local traders who pay a very low price for the nuts then sell them on to the international market for a lucrative profit.

Right from the start, RONAP was supported and encouraged by Candela, who some gatherers were already selling their nuts to. Candela is an alternative trading organisation that works to Fair Trade principles with the objective of improving the incomes of rural producers. It provides credit, storage, and organic certification procedures for RONAP as well as training in areas such as administration and sustainable resource management. Candela purchases, processes, markets and exports  brazil nuts, which are either dried, sorted, graded and vacuum packed for export or pressed to make brazil nut oil, whose essential fatty acids make it an ideal ingredient for skin moisturisers.

RONAP’s membership has grown to 72 nut gatherers who between them produce around 88 tonnes of shelled organic brazil nuts a year, all sold to the Fairtrade market via Candela. The co-op is planning to recruit more members to increase production and reduce costs.

Members grow vegetables, rice and maize at subsistence level for their own consumption and also feed maize to their chickens and pigs. Bulls are kept mainly as a means of transport.

RONAP and Fairtrade

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RONAP was Fairtrade certified in May 2004 and has been selling to the Fairtrade market since then. RONAP is a shareholder in Liberation, a UK 100% Fairtrade nut company that is part-owned by the smallholder co-operatives in Asia, Africa and Latin America who supply its nuts.

The minimum Fairtrade price for organic brazil nuts is $1.92/lb plus an additional Fairtrade premium of $0.17/lb for the members to spend on agreed business development programmes or community projects.

Use of the Fairtrade premium

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The higher, stable Fairtrade price means a better standard of living for members and has enabled them to repair or improve their houses. The premium fund has been used to help families with their social expenses. Some children weren’t able to study because their families couldn’t afford school fees and other costs. Now the premium fund is used to help families with these costs so that their children can attend school and get the education they need to progress in life.

The premium has also been used to strengthen the co-operative. Office space has been rented, a computer purchased and staff wages paid, all using the premium. In the future the members would like to buy land and build their own premises, and even one day have their own processing plant.