Bolivian Brazil nuts, good for us and for the environment!
26.06.20
We begin to collaborate with Rewild, a small Treviso reality formed after years of international cooperation, of supporting the rural population in South America, especially in Peru, consolidating sustainable development processes that have led to the creation of associations of organic and fair-trade producers from which today Rewild supplies itself.
ORGANIC BRAZIL NUTS
PRODUCED Brazil
nuts are the fruit of Bertholletia excelsa, an Amazonian tree, between 30 and 50 meters tall, belonging to the Lecythidaceae family.
There is no cultivation of Brazil nuts in the world. The walnuts on the market come, in fact, from the original Amazon forest between Peru, Bolivia and Brazil and grow spontaneously.
Each mature tree produces about 300 kernels of nuts, and each coconut contains between 25 and 30 nuts. Between December and March of each year, the so-called “rainy season”, the cocci, now mature, fall to the ground.
ORIGIN
The Brazil nuts that we sell all come from Bolivia. During our 10 years of work in Latin America, we had the opportunity to visit several of the wooded areas of origin, but also several product processing plants, deepening and ensuring knowledge of the entire production chain.
PRODUCER
The entire production is entirely entrusted to the expert hands of Mother Nature.
The collection and transport (mostly fluvial) to the collection and processing centers, is carried out, on the other hand, by the indigenous peoples who thus guarantee the conservation of the forest.
Finally, the processing and sale are carried out by various companies. In particular, our nuts are processed by two companies in the Riberalta area. The first is a family-run business founded in the late 80s and the other, more recent, founded in 2006, organic and fair trade.
Both are distinguished by three fundamental characteristics: effectively controlled production
processes, which guarantee high quality standards; decent
work for their staff; collaboration
agreements with indigenous collectors associations, which include the technical assistance necessary for the inclusion of these realities in the Fair Trade system.
Filiera
Rewild is a small, family-run company. Dealing with modest volumes, it sometimes makes use of large international importers to purchase the goods, especially if they come from very distant countries. As in this case, however, between us and the manufacturer, we try to guarantee only one intermediate step.
SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
Related to the collection and processing of Brazil nuts, there are two orders of socio-environmental repercussions to consider:
- valuing sustainable economic activities in the Amazon rainforest based on local biodiversity, improving the human impact on the ecosystem.
- reward the work and traditional knowledge of indigenous and rural populations active in the collection and processing of nuts and other wild products.
Through the purchase of organic Brazil nuts from original and/or fair trade forests, we try to guarantee, on the one hand, the conservation of important areas of the Amazon forest and, on the other, the economic and social development of the indigenous peoples who are responsible for the harvest, but also of the rural communities engaged in processing and sale.
Finally, remember that most of our products, however, come from distant countries, and are transported on ships. Emissions caused by international shipping are estimated at about 23 percentage points of global greenhouse gas emissions. This is undoubtedly a big problem in terms of environmental impact.
To limit the problem, supranational initiatives such as the MRV Regulation adopted in 2015 by the EU, or the Global Data Collection System (DCS) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) have been activated. These are the first international systems for detecting and monitoring CO2 emissions from maritime transport, which must provide precise data in order to develop strategies for their reduction.
On the other hand, it seems appropriate to point out that, as the graph above clearly describes, the impact of the nut production chain, in terms of CO2 emissions, is negative despite transport, thanks to the filtering power of walnut trees.
The economic profit deriving from the trade in Amazon nuts, therefore, contributes, in a virtuous circle, to preserving the green lung of our planet, the Amazon Forest and one of its most industrious plants.
Below is an interesting video that collects the direct testimonies of the pickers of this spontaneous fruit.
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