W skrócie
Lokalizacja: Brazylia
Impact Areas: Sustainable Agriculture and Income, Technology Inclusion
People Supported:
Smallholder Farmers, Indigenous Peoples, Women
Dołączył do NESsT Portfolio:
2024
O przedsiębiorstwie
The cassava flour value chain plays a crucial role in supporting Indigenous and local communities in Brazil’s Amazon region. Cassava (Manihot esculenta), also known as manioc or yuca, is both a staple food and an essential source of income for many households. However, families who produce cassava flour in their homes face challenges reaching broader markets, including limited production capacity, concerns about lack of hygiene, and inconsistent quality. As a result, these communities are often forced to sell their cassava-based products to intermediaries at lower prices, limiting their financial stability and growth.
Social enterprise Apoena was founded in 2021 by Onésimo Maurillo Gomes, an entrepreneur and local leader of Indigenous descent with deep community roots, who recognized these challenges in the cassava flour supply chain. In response, Apoena developed affordable, in-house technology to improve the safety, efficiency, and quality of cassava processing for local farmers. While its equipment – which includes flour mixers and processors – is not new to the market, Apoena 's machines are designed using readily available materials. This approach allows for easy replication with minimal investment in remote, low-income communities.
Apoena is the main social enterprise that purchases cassava directly from local communities to boost their income. It also operates on a smaller scale within the Brazil nut, andiroba, cacao, and açai value chains, and processes Amazonian fish, such as Pirarucu and Tambaqui. The social enterprise collaborates closely with cassava flour producers to enhance their working conditions, providing training in organic farming and cassava processing techniques. This support not only ensures families have the knowledge to run successful farms but also fosters sustainable agricultural practices that benefit the community and environment alike.
To meet the demand for high-quality cassava flour, Apoena offers its producers 45% higher than that paid by intermediaries, encouraging suppliers to recognize the value of producing a better-quality product. Additionally, Apoena simplifies logistics by picking up flour directly from producers’ communities, reducing transport costs. In 2022, Apoena supported +30 small-scale farmers, processing and selling 60 tons of the highest quality flour in the region.
Rezultaty i wpływ
60
tons of flour sold in 2022
+30
flour-supplying families supported
45%
premium over market price paid to suppliers
“Apoena and its team are striving to achieve incredible things through the appreciation of traditional knowledge, generating income, and creating wealth that has a positive impact on the deep Amazon. Our success is the result of our producers’ talents along with the support of a strategic organization like NESsT to jointly promote the development of many productive value chains.”
Inwestycja NESsT
Apoena seeks to continue its works to strengthen the cassava supply chain and support suppliers to professionalize their flour production. To do so, the enterprise plans to support local families to build community flour processing centers in each of the five communities where it operates. These centers will use Apoena’s in-house equipment and will be managed by a local woman leader.
NESsT’s investment will initially fund a pilot processing site, with a goal of doubling the income for 30 farming families and improving their working conditions. NESsT portfolio managers will also provide strategic technical support to scale the project to other communities by 2025, fostering reliable partnerships with community members and significantly boosting local income and employment opportunities.
In the due diligence phase, NESsT supported Apoena to improve its financial management. As part of its ongoing support to Apoena, NESsT will continue this assistance and provide guidance on tracking environmental and social impact, managing community partnerships, and building essential skills among its suppliers, drawing on its experience with other bioeconomy enterprises in its portfolio.