Sambazon Sustainable Acai
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
How to Create Market-Based Strategies that Benefit Low-Income Communities competition.
Sambazon (Sustainable Management of the Brazilian Amazon), www.sambazon.com, purchases organic, fair trade and sustainably wild harvested Acai Palmberry fruits from over 940 low-income families living inside 66,000 acres of the Varzea Eco-Region 147 of the Amazon Rainforest. These low income native producers are organized into 4 Cooperatives and are the main beneficiaries of Sambazon's operational model. Sambazon industrializes the palmberry fruits into pulps, beverages, ice creams and supplements and sells these finished products that carry the Sambazon brand name within the US natural food and beverage market segment. Being native to the Amazon River Basin, the Acai Palmberry fruits are renewable products that directly preserve the natural habitat for the traditional and native producers. These fruits improve local economic conditions and the sustainable utilization of natural resources. Non-timber forest products such as A?a? give an economic alternative to local communities who normally depend on destructive logging and other non sustainable activities for their livelihood. With the increased demand for the fruit and through the promotion of sustainable agro-forestry systems, the value is being shifted to renewable resources, with the incentive on sustainability. This change of paradigm gives great ammunition not only to the environmental movement, but also to socially responsible business worldwide.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Sector of activity
Consumer Products
Other sector of activity
Sustainable Agro-Forestry
On the mosaic diagram, which of these factors is the primary focus of your work?
Factor
High volume business based on small (even tiny) individual transactions
Principle
Leverage the power of communities as both consumers and producers
Sambazon has led the process of revolutionizing the Brazilian wild harvested A?a? Palmberry fruit market by giving special attention to low income rural Amazonian communities. Sambazon?s demand for sustainably harvested A?a? fruits contributes to
Name Your Project
Sambazon Sustainable Acai
Describe Your Idea
Sambazon (Sustainable Management of the Brazilian Amazon), www.sambazon.com, purchases organic, fair trade and sustainably wild harvested Acai Palmberry fruits from over 940 low-income families living inside 66,000 acres of the Varzea Eco-Region 147 of the Amazon Rainforest. These low income native producers are organized into 4 Cooperatives and are the main beneficiaries of Sambazon's operational model. Sambazon industrializes the palmberry fruits into pulps, beverages, ice creams and supplements and sells these finished products that carry the Sambazon brand name within the US natural food and beverage market segment. Being native to the Amazon River Basin, the Acai Palmberry fruits are renewable products that directly preserve the natural habitat for the traditional and native producers. These fruits improve local economic conditions and the sustainable utilization of natural resources. Non-timber forest products such as A?a? give an economic alternative to local communities who normally depend on destructive logging and other non sustainable activities for their livelihood. With the increased demand for the fruit and through the promotion of sustainable agro-forestry systems, the value is being shifted to renewable resources, with the incentive on sustainability. This change of paradigm gives great ammunition not only to the environmental movement, but also to socially responsible business worldwide.
Innovation
Description of your products or services:
Sambazon (Sustainable Management of the Brazilian Amazon), www.sambazon.com, purchases organic, fair trade and sustainably wild harvested A?a? Palmberry fruits from over 940 low-income families living inside 66,000 acres of the Varzea Eco-Region 147 of the Amazon Rainforest. These low income native producers are organized into 4 Cooperatives and are the main beneficiaries of Sambazon?s operational model. Sambazon industrializes the palmberry fruits into pulps, beverages, ice creams and supplements and sells these finished products that carry the Sambazon brand name within the US natural food and beverage market segment. Being native to the Amazon River Basin, the A?a? Palmberry fruits are renewable products that directly preserve the natural habitat for the traditional and native producers. These fruits improve local economic conditions and the sustainable utilization of natural resources. Non-timber forest products such as A?a? give an economic alternative to local communities who normally depend on destructive logging and other non sustainable activities for their livelihood. With the increased demand for the fruit and through the promotion of sustainable agro-forestry systems, the value is being shifted to renewable resources, with the incentive on sustainability. This change of paradigm gives great ammunition not only to the environmental movement, but also to socially responsible business worldwide.
Description of the operational model:
A) Production ? Sambazon purchases the fruit from the 4 native family Coops. A local NGO (FASE-PA) provides technical assistance to the Coops that support their compliance with all USDA Organic Certification guidelines. In addition to this the NGO intermediates all purchasing between the Coops and SAMBAZON in order to insure that Fair Trade pricing is being correctly followed. B) Distribution / Delivery- Each Coop has a strategically located drop off point where the family producers deliver the fruits according to the harvest schedule. The local NGO provides logistical support between the Coops and Sambazon to insure efficiencies. Upon arrival at the drop off points, Sambazon has trucks waiting to pick up the fruits and transport them to local industries where they are then industrialized into Sambazon products. C) Market ?Products are shipped from Brazil to the USA to be sold in Sambazon?s retail and foodservice distribution channels. This groundbreaking concept of ?Market Driven Conservation? allows low income native family producers in the Amazon to improve their social, economic and environmental living conditions through the sustainable harvesting of NTFPs such as the A?a? Palmberry. Every dollar spent by US consumers who purchase Sambazon products directly contribute to improving the quality of life for the Coops and native family producers who harvest these fruits, as well as protect the biodiversity of the Amazon Rainforest.
Impact
Description of the financial model:
Sambazon is a company built on a Triple bottom line promoting long term social, environmental, and economic success. The local NGO (FASE) together with Sambazon and the Coops structured a Fair Trade pricing model that guarantees that the low income producer families will be receiving just prices for the fruits they sell to Sambazon. There are two mechanisms used to these prices: A) Minimum Price - The minimum price for A?a? fruit guarantees that we are covering the real costs of goods for the growers and a necessary profit margin that allows them to live with the basic necessities of health and satisfaction. B) Price Premium - When the local market prices for conventional fruit are equal to or above the minimum price above, Sambazon pays an additional premium on top of the local market prices for conventional fruit for every basket of fruit purchased. Because of this relationship, FASE, together with the Federal University of Par? also provide the Coops and low income producer families with technical assistance that permits them to utilize credit facilities that allow them to manage their production and generate increased income over the long term.
Client fees represent this approximate percentage of operational budget:
15%
Key operational partnership:
FASE-PA www.fase.org.br Institutional partnership was formed with the Brazilian N.G.O. Federation of Social- Educational Assistance. The goal is to structure and increase the qualification of local A?a? producer associations linked with FASE-PA to create a sustainable forest management system for the A?a? palmberry fruit. UFPA (Para Federal University ? Food Engineering Department) By centralizing and coordinating regional sustainable development efforts along with local government, growers associations and NGO?s, UFPA Food Engineering Department provides SAMBAZON and its partners with product research and nutritional orientation concerning A?a?. The Nature Conservancy EcoEnterprise Fund- A venture fund for nature, uniting business and conservation. Sambazon has been working closely with The Eco-Enterprise Fund since 2003, and utilizes annual credit facilities to purchase fruit in Brazil. Ecologic Finance www.ecologic.org Targeting the rural credit market, EEV provides small business loans to support productive activities that foster biodiversity conservation and grassroots economic development. SAMBAZON has a recurring debt financing arrangement to purchase fruit in Brazil.
Current outreach:
We are at the Scaling Up stage. In the 4th year of activities, the Sambazon Sustainable A?a? initiative has already achieved tremendous impact through the company?s sustainable business model based on market driven conservation and the triple bottom line. The initiative focused on programs with the local communities involving demonstrative courses aimed at increasing the logistics of the harvest system; agricultural management of the A?a? fruit and technological qualification for increased production. This system has shown to increase the operational and financial yield of the involved local producer associations exponentially. The final result is the successful commercialization of A?a? as a model of sustainable agro-forestry in the Varzea of flooded tidal forest region of the Amazon Rainforest.
How many clients have benefited from your product/service in total? Over the last year?:
Since the beginning of the initiative over 940 low income rural producer families have directly benefited from Sambazon?s purchase of sustainably harvested A?a? Palmberry fruits. Each family has an average of 15 household members; therefore over 14,000 rural income individuals living in the Amazon have been directly benefited.
What percentage of your clients is below the poverty line ($2 per day)?
99% In Brazil minimum monthly wage is calculated at R$ 300 / month (US$ 125 / month) and 100% of these families are below the poverty line. A large majority of the low income family producers that supply fruit to Sambazon are able to earn at least triple this amount on an annual basis during the four months of the harvest season.
What is the order of magnitude of the potential demand for your products or services? Which other low-income groups, countries or regions could benefit from it? Try to quantify (number of clients, market size in currency).
The potential demand for certified sustainable A?a? Palmberry fruit products is growing at an outstanding rate, basically tripling every year over the last decade. This increase in demand has a direct impact on the low income family producers who harvest the fruit because it provides them with increased wages and an economic alternative to destructive economic practices such as logging. Therefore the Sambazon Sustainable A?a? initiative has already proven the large scale social economic impact it can provide to low income rural communities throughout the Amazon who have access to non timber forest products such as A?a? Palmberry.
Scale-up strategy:
How many low-income individuals do you plan to benefit in three years from now? How are you planning to scale up or replicate your solution? What are the major constraints to scale up?
Sambazon plans on tripling its production over the next 5 years. The company is currently vertically integrating its supply chain and will be inaugurating in 2006 its own industrial unit to process the sustainable A?a? fruits. One of the largest bottlenecks facing the company is limited industrial production capacity which has been outsourced until now and has limited the amount of fruit that can be purchased from the low income family producers. In addition to increased industrial capacity, it is necessary that foundations, local government and local and international NGO?s also invest in technical assistance aimed at to provide these low income families who will benefit from the increased international demand for A?a? based products and capacitate them with forest management programs, business education so that the supply chain will remain sustainable for future generations.
Which specific areas - and why - in your field would benefit most from investment by corporations, foundations, and other investors:
The Sambazon Sustainable A?a? initiative is a model that can be replicated throughout the Amazon Basin as the demand for A?a? fruits and other value added NTFPs continues to grow and be implemented to other rural low income communities who have access to the fruit. Investments from corporations and foundations are needed to increase the demand for Sustainable A?a? throughout international markets and at the same time invest in the sustainability (increased technical assistance) of the supply chain in order to guarantee that it will remain sustainable and always benefit low income family producers in the Amazon.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
The organization: How does the initiative fit with your overall organization's strategic goals and priorities? How did the initiative start?
The Sustainable Acai Project is at the core of Sambazon's strategic goals and mission. Sambazon, which stands for Sustainable Management of the Brazilian Amazon, creates positive exchange in the Amazon and promotes positive socio-economic change. Sambazon promotes a sustainable economic system for poor family farmers by providing an alternative in agro-forestry development. (Currently Amazon Forest being cut for timber, then mined and then converted to soybean fields or cattle ranches.) By providing better wages, which means better living, education and freedom at many levels, Sambazon represents respect for mother earth, taking a proactive approach through sustainable forest management. The world needs superheroes, if not you and me, who?s it going to be?
Organization's legal status:
US S-corp with Brazilian subsidiary
Number of Employees:
25
 | 351 weeks agoSambazon Sustainable A?ai has been chosen as a winner in How to Create Market-Based Strategies that Benefit Low-Income Communities. |
| 355 weeks agoSambazon Sustainable A?ai has been chosen as a finalist in How to Create Market-Based Strategies that Benefit Low-Income Communities. |
