{"id":92752,"date":"2019-04-13T13:39:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-13T11:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/?post_type=partner&#038;p=92752"},"modified":"2024-01-08T17:14:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T16:14:39","slug":"casa-apis","status":"publish","type":"partner","link":"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/en\/partners\/casa-apis\/","title":{"rendered":"Casa Apis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hope for a drought-ridden region<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There is precious little work in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Caatinga%23Geography\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Caatinga<\/a>, a semi-desert region in the north east of Brazil. Because of the lack of industry here, the area has very little to offer in economic terms. So the additional income offered to its disadvantaged residents by Casa Apis is very welcome indeed. It provides this assistance by supporting the local farmers in the keeping of bees and the sale of their honey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Producent: Casa Apis\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0XQr_98w5YY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite much misfortune \u2013 such as its long drought periods, drug trafficking, food scarcity and high child mortality rate \u2013 the Brazilian Caatinga has one major advantage: its unique flora. In the few months when its flora are in bloom, the region\u2019s bee population flourishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This makes the regions surrounding Piaui and Maranh\u00e3o extremely well suited to honey production.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fair-trade honey ready to take over the world<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Casa Apis currently sells around 10% of its honey domestically. All the rest is <strong>exported<\/strong> to the EU and the United States under fair-trade and organic conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The cooperative owes its success to the continued development of their <strong>infrastructure<\/strong> ever since they got off the ground in 2007. A large part of the budget for this comes from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfamwereldwinkels.be\/expertise\/labels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fair trade premium<\/a><em> (info in Dutch)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Casa Apis shares out wooden <strong>beehives<\/strong> among its honey producers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The cooperative can <strong>process<\/strong> its farmers\u2019 honey itself. And it does so in full compliance with the international <a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.belgium.be\/en\/node\/24660\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HACCP standards<\/a> of food safety. Furthermore, the 28 <strong>small-scale facilities for honey extraction<\/strong> meet the strict EU legislation on the production of honey.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The cooperative <strong>relocates the beehives<\/strong> (bees and all!) and the processing facilities as soon as the blossoming period is over in the state of Piau\u00ed. Everything is moved to the state of Maranh\u00e3o, about 500 km away. Other flowers can be found growing there, closer to the Amazon River. Thanks to this yearly move, the beekeepers can get a lot more revenue from their beehives.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Casa Apis digs wells in Piau\u00ed where they are lacking, bringing <strong>drinkable water<\/strong> to both the bees and the locals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Casa Apis invests in people as well as its facilities. <strong>A well-trained team<\/strong> supports the 600 beekeepers in many areas of expertise. The cooperative organises <strong>training courses for novice beekeepers<\/strong>, for example. It also calls in <strong>bee experts<\/strong> to attend to specific problems. And all the effort is paying off. The cooperative is thriving and <strong>young people<\/strong> are captivated by it. They see a real future in beekeeping.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>We\u2019re making good money from our honey thanks to the free beehives from Casa Apis. Selling to fair-trade and organic clients overseas gives us a guaranteed income. Although there\u2019s little work in our region, we have hope for our children\u2019s future.<\/p><cite>Eusebio, Casa Apis<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Casa Apis &amp; Oxfam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Since 2018 we\u2019ve been using the honey from Casa Apis in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/en\/products\/food\/breakfast\/sandwich-spreads\/maya-organic-speculoos-175-g\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>speculoos<\/strong><\/a> cookies, and you can taste it. Did we mention that this high-quality, characterful honey is also organic and fair-trade?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Oxfam Fair Trade has helped Casa Apis in the <strong>search for new clients<\/strong> and continues to do so. As a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newefta.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EFTA<\/a> (European Fair Trade Association) we\u2019re happy to bring the cooperative in contact with other European fair-trade companies. We are confident that this will lead to additional revenue for Casa Apis.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As a result of the drought, around 60% of the bees that used to graze in the Caatinga have left for greener pastures. Casa Apis has therefore launched an<strong> ecological reforestation project<\/strong>, under the expert eye of scientists, financed in part by Fairtrade premiums.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hope for a drought-ridden region There is precious little work in the Caatinga, a semi-desert region in the north east of Brazil. Because of the lack of industry here, the area has very little to offer in economic terms. So the additional income offered to its disadvantaged residents by Casa &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88923,"template":"","class_list":["post-92752","partner","type-partner","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"partner_bullet_points":[{"partner_bullet_point":"honey cooperative from a bone-dry and economically disadvantaged region of Brazil"},{"partner_bullet_point":"produces quality, characterful blossom honey that\u2019s fair-trade and organic"},{"partner_bullet_point":"invests systematically in new beehives and modern processing facilities"}],"partner_region":"Piaui, Brazil","partner_website":""},"partner_image":"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/casa-apis-oxfam-fair-trade-partner-1024x768.jpg","partner_quote":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>We\u2019re making good money from our honey thanks to the free beehives from Casa Apis. Selling to fair-trade and organic clients overseas gives us a guaranteed income. Although there\u2019s little work in our region, we have hope for our children\u2019s future.<\/p><cite>Eusebio, Casa Apis<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partners\/92752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partners"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/partner"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partners\/92752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104935,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partners\/92752\/revisions\/104935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfamfairtrade.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}