The humble Brazil nut is one of the UK’s most beloved superfoods and a true nutritional powerhouse. It is a great source of protein, minerals and several amino acids that help protect the body from serious disease.
What is lesser known about the Brazil nut, however, is its challenging journey from the Amazonian forest floor to store shelves all over the world. Liberation, the UK’S only Fairtrade and farmer-owned nut company, works with a number of nut co-operatives – COINACAPA, ACEBA and Aire Muje – to supply good quality nuts and address challenges experienced by the communities that produce them.
To commemorate National Nut Day on 22 October, here are some fascinating facts about this humble product of the mighty Amazon forest.
1. The Brazil nut is part of a perfectly orchestrated natural symphony
Reaching up to 160 feet, the Brazil nut tree is a true giant of the Amazon, but its survival hinges on an unlikely symbiotic relationship with its own flowers and seed pods, a particular rainforest orchid, the sex lives of bees and the feeding habits of a tropical rodent called agouti.
The tree’s flowers can only be pollinated by large-bodied bees who have characteristic large tongues. In turn, the bees cannot reproduce without the rainforest. And lastly, the only animal able to penetrate the rock-hard shell containing the nut seeds and in so doing distribute the seeds further along the forest floor, is the agouti.
2. Brazil nut gatherer communities play a role in protecting the Amazon forest
The Brazil nut trade is a huge economic driver in the Amazon basin. However, unlike most of the other commercial enterprises relying on the forest (such as timber, gold and rubber) the nut is one of the few resources that remain under the control of the region’s poor, mostly farmers, who rely heavily on these trees for their livelihoods.
In addition, because Brazil nut trees only grow and flourish under healthy, pristine forest conditions, nut farmers are fiercely protective of the forest surrounding the nut trees, maintaining the exceptionally fragile ecosystem that ensures not only the protection of the Brazil nut trees’ lifecycle but also that of the forest and other species.
A crucial contributing factor to the protection of these forests is the organisation of farmers into co-operatives. COINACAPA, a founding shareholder of Liberation Foods, was instrumental in establishing the nut co-operatives.
“What incentivised us to work together, more than ever, was the fact that so many families were being mistreated by ranch managers,” says Julián Pérez Ortiz, president of nut co-operative COINACAPA, Bolivia. “We realised that the only way to liberate these families was for them to organise. Then they could finally be free and get paid a fair price.
3. Climate change has a profound impact on the nut supply chain
Nuts are typically gathered during the rainy season in the wettest region of Bolivia, which means trails leading into the forest and roads leading to shipping points become close to impassable. Rivers are bursting at the banks, and farmers may experience massive delays in transporting their produce.
However, the nut-gathering communities are incredibly resilient. In addition, access to pre-financing (provided by a Fairtrade/Liberation partnership) means they are able to start collecting nuts before the rainy season arrives. Pre-finance also enables them to finance equipment, gathering, delivery and transit of goods.
4. Nut gathering is a dangerous business
Nut gatherers spend days and weeks gathering nuts and sleeping in the forest before returning home with their produce. Gatherers collect the pods that encase what we know as Brazil nuts – large shelled fruits, like a coconut, which contain anywhere from 10-25 Brazil nuts each. The shells weigh up to 3kg and, when falling from the height of the tree, can crush a human skull.
“You leave your house thinking that everything will be fine, but if God wills it you could die because of a nut falling on your head,” says Bolivian nut gatherer Santos Pereira Panduro “It’s happened to many people I know. In addition to the falling nuts, there are also snakes in the forest. One of them bit my wife and she was unconscious for over an hour. Luckily she survived.”
Once collected, gatherers carry the pods out of the forest back to their communities. From there, it is still around 1,200 miles to the port from where the nuts will be shipped to Liberation. The nuts in shell are transported two to three days down river in canoes to a collection point where they are shelled with special cracking machines, cleaned, quality tested and packed ready for export. From there, the nuts are transported by lorry to La Paz and ultimately to the Arica port in Chile.
5. Information is power, and a fair price is justice
Evidently, Brazil nut co-operatives have faced a number of significant challenges over the years. One particular challenge that might not be immediately obvious is the fact that of all the players in the supply chain, farmers and workers typically have the least amount of information on the wider industry.
This is something that Liberation wanted to change.
“We found that giving farmers access to information was a powerful motivating factor for the gatherers who have to spend weeks on end in the dangerous forest environment gathering nuts,” says Kate Gaskell, Liberation managing director. “Understanding how quality affects the price, they are encouraged more than ever to treat nuts in the right way which has led to an improvement in quality.”
Brazil nut-cooperatives have faced a number of issues over the years – these include currency fluctuations, adverse weather conditions and the complexity of managing contract processers to shell and pack nuts at origin. One thing that has seen them through tough times was the knowledge that, ultimately, they would be paid a fair price for their produce.
“A fair price brings justice,” says Bolivian nut gatherer Yoselina Quette “It’s fair that if someone works incredibly hard under difficult circumstances, that they should be properly rewarded. To people in the UK we have this message: if you are willing to pay a fair price, we will continue searching out quality nuts.”
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Fairtrade Foundation, sponsor of the spotlight on commodities series
