COAGROSOL

Compost Projet

Coagrosol

Start: 2000

Field of action: São Paulo, Brazil

Members: 90 small and medium sized fruit producers

Today, Brazil is the world’s main producer of orange juice, and its state of São Paulo produces 85% of Brazil’s oranges. It is true that the climate in this region is particularly favourable for orange groves. Rainfall is plentiful and well distributed throughout the year, the average temperature of 24°C is constant and there is no risk of frost. These conditions mean that Brazil has a natural advantage over Florida, its main rival. Together these two production areas produce more than 85% of the orange juice consumed in the world.[1]

Small and medium sized producers (mostly family-run producer companies) of the state of São Paulo have been facing difficulties marketing their orange production because of the dominant position of the big industries. Coagrosol was established as a fair alternative to challenge this situation. It attempts to improve the situation of the families owning the family-run producer companies and supports producers in their search for sustainable development of their companies.

Nowadays the production of fruit is diversified providing more stability for the producers. About 70% of the volume that is exported by Coagrosol is traded under fair trade conditions.

Another special characteristic of Coagrosol is its production of organic products, which offers prices that are more or less stable. The Coagrosol producers, labour union representatives and some farmers joined together to form ACREMIR, which is responsible for the approval of social initiatives and for the coordination of products. Also, small and medium sized producers can scarcely compete with large capital-intensive plantations and have in any case to look for different production models. The positive impact on the environment is an important extra advantage. After identifying organic production as a sustainable alternative for small fruit producers in the region, Coagrosol intensified its technical support for helping producers in their conversion to organic production while guaranteeing their economic profitability.

Context

Although based on several years of practical experience, Coagrosol is confronted with a significant problem: in the region it is impossible to find sufficient volumes of organic material to use as compost which is almost indispensable to profitable and organic production.

Moreover, the soil is very poor and has been degraded by the heavy impact of conventional managing and the intensive use of chemical fertilizers. Hence the idea of processing organic agro-industrial waste into compost and using urban organic waste to maintain parks and other green spaces.

No waste to waste

Through the increase of the availability of organic material (compost) for the producers, Coagrosol now wants to extend its organic production. The project that is being supported is building  three high quality, inter-municipal compost units where the urban and industrial waste of the region will be brought, thereby creating an available source of organic materials for small producers at a low cost and reducing the environmental impact.