Brazil Brazil
placeBahia, Brazil

Coopealnor

  • cooperative of fruit growers from Rio Real and surrounding areas
  • these producers from Brazil already worked with Oxfam before their cooperative was founded
  • sells orange and passion-fruit concentrate directly to Oxfam
Brazil Brazil

Small-scale orange farmers united

In Brazil’s orange-growing industry, a small number of giants hold all the power. Small-scale and sustainable fruit producers struggle to stay afloat. That is, unless they join forces, like the farmers of the Coopealnor cooperative.

Coopealnor is an offshoot from the NGO Cealnor. This NGO promotes agroecology and supports small-scale farmers in Brazil. It founded the cooperative in 2007 so it could also represent the commercial interests of the orange farmers.

Ever since it began, the cooperative’s initiators have believed strongly in the market potential of fair-trade products. And rightly so. Thanks to their close collaboration and smart decisions, the producers can now export an increasing amount of orange juice and sell more of it under fair trade conditions.

Selling more fair-trade fruit juice

Fair trade remains a core value of the Coopealnor cooperative. But it’s also exploring other ways of increasing the income of the farmers.

  • In addition to processing the oranges into a concentrate for export, the cooperative places some of their efforts into the production of whole oranges and freshly-squeezed orange juice. This they sell within Brazil, to schools in particular.
  • Coopealnor is establishing new export channels. More international fair-trade buyers lead to more income from fair-trade premiums. The producers often invest these in the mechanisation of orange harvesting and processing, allowing them to cultivate and sell more.
  • The orange farmers of Coopealnor use sustainable, eco-friendly and, where possible, organic growing methods. A quarter of the farmers are currently operating completely organically. The cooperative recently planted 30 hectares of new orange trees in the transition to organic cultivation. In addition to the environmental benefit, this is a great strategy to earn more from their efforts. After all, producers earn more on certified-organic

The extreme drought in 2013 led to the death of a lot of orange trees and my yield is still lower than it was. Coopealnor is advising on how we can get more income from the oranges we have and on which other income streams we can tap into.

Anúzia Maria Dos Santos

Coopealnor & Oxfam

  • Oxfam Fair Trade already worked with the umbrella organisation Cealnor before the founding of Coopealnor in 2007. Talk about a long-term relationship (info in Dutch)!
  • The high-quality, fair-trade orange juice from Coopealnor is in practically all the Oxfam Fair Trade fruit juices that contain orange.
  • You can taste their sweet-and-sour passionfruit concentrate in our Tropical juice.