Anatomy of babassu-nut value chain for policy guidance in support of traditional agroextractive communities in the Mearim Valley, Maranhão, Brazil

Porro, Roberto; Sousa, Ronaldo Carneiro de

doi:10.1590/1806-9479.2022.263743

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Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural

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Article • Rev. Econ. Sociol. Rural 61 (4) • 2023 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9479.2022.263743 copy

Anatomy of babassu-nut value chain for policy guidance in support of traditional agroextractive communities in the Mearim Valley, Maranhão, Brazil

Anatomia da cadeia de valor do babaçu para suporte a políticas públicas voltadas a comunidades tradicionais agroextrativistas no Vale do Mearim, Maranhão, Brasil

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract:

Babassu-nuts are one of the most important socio-biodiversity products in Brazil. Detailed and reliable information on the babassu value chain is essential for local and regional public policies to support the economy associated with the extraction of this product and vulnerable social groups that depend on it for survival. This study presents a methodology to analyze the babassu value chain and discusses results obtained in 2021 from the application of this methodology in Vale do Mearim, Maranhão, the region with the highest babassu production in the country. The study contributes to the evaluation of the accuracy of official statistics on production and involvement in babassu extractive activity and discusses implications for the most relevant public policy for non-timber forest products in Brazil, the Minimum Price Policy for Socio-biodiversity Products (PGPM-Bio). In a territory comprising 25 municipalities, we interviewed about 640 local traders, who purchased 6,000 tons of almonds from 9,000 extractivist families, with an annual average of 661 kg per family. These local traders passed the production to 23 regional traders, who transported it to 11 industrial pressing units for oil production, 8 of them located in the same territory. According to the field research, the volume commercialized corresponds to 27% of the official estimate for the previous year, denoting a reduction in production and in the number of persons engaged in extraction activity much higher than the downward trend indicated by official statistics. Considering that determining the Gross Domestic Product of municipalities, as well as planning and monitoring the implementation of policies such as PGPM-Bio should take into account outreach indicators based on official statistics, the analyses suggest reviewing procedures to obtain annual estimates of babassu extraction.

Keywords:
Attalea speciosa; bioeconomy; non-timber forest product; sociobiodiversity

	Volume of babassu (t) purchased in 2021
	≤ 6	6-12	12-24	24-36	≥ 36	Total
Locations	326 51.0%	183 28.6%	86 13.5%	22 3.4%	22 3.4%	639 100%
t of babassu nuts	1,094,873 18.3%	1,494,093 24.9%	1,422,562 23.7%	649,015 10.8%	1,334,577 22.3%	5,995,119 100%

	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Number of municipalities	2	6	10	18	18	25
Annual volume (t of nuts)	1,470.0	2,588.0	3,590.6	5,247.3	4,747.4	5,995.1
Production value (1,000 US$)	656.6	1,594.5	1,774.7	1,485.3	1,609.2	2,974.7
Average price of nuts (US$/kg)	0.45	0.62	0.49	0.28	0.34	0.50

Municipality	Volume (t)	Value (US$)	Mean price (US$/kg)	Families	Kg/fam/year
Alto Alegre do Maranhão	129.9	54,726	0.42	314	414
Bacabal	868.7	467,973	0.54	1,082	803
Bernardo do Mearim	229.8	115,540	0.50	255	901
Bom Lugar	275.4	146,777	0.53	242	1,138
Capinzal	79.8	48,315	0.61	120	665
Esperantinópolis	111.5	38,825	0.41	240	464
Igarapé Grande	202.8	105,046	0.52	231	878
Joselândia	231.9	113,067	0.49	277	837
Lago da Pedra	90.5	44,180	0.49	131	691
Lago do Junco	137.5	58,692	0.43	178	773
Lago dos Rodrigues	82.4	37,608	0.46	101	816
Coppalj ^* * Data from Lago do Junco and Lago dos Rodrigues excludes production from Coppalj. The cooperative is active in both municipalities and its production is reported separately.	668.1	416,845	0.62	1,266	528
Lima Campos	114.9	59,912	0.52	191	602
Olho D’Água das Cunhãs	140.1	62,312	0.44	238	589
Paulo Ramos	267.7	97,352	0.45	392	683
Pedreiras	50.6	29,236	0.58	129	392
Peritoró	203.6	97,766	0.48	313	650
Pio XII	141.5	63,988	0.45	297	476
Poção de Pedras	216.5	88,482	0.41	401	540
Santo Antônio dos Lopes	73.8	44,010	0.60	102	723
São José dos Basílios	52.8	28,069	0.53	87	607
São Luís Gonzaga do MA	1,018.1	475,133	0.47	1,526	667
São Roberto	12.1	5,629	0.47	16	756
Satubinha	110.0	52,097	0.47	110	1,000
Trizidela do Vale	201.2	94,771	0.47	378	532
Vitorino Freire	283.9	128,373	0.45	450	631
Total	5,995.2	2,974,724	0.50	9,067	661

	Initials	Municipality	Babassu-nuts (t)	% of total	Local suppliers
1	VFJ	Bacabal	517.1	8.6	57
2	MMN	Vitorino Freire	466.6	7.8	58
3	SPE	São Luís Gonzaga do Maranhão	452.9	7.6	39
4	NFC	Bacabal	414.9	6.9	69
5	SCE	Alto Alegre do Maranhão	414.9	6.9	56
6	SMR	Trizidela do Vale	341.3	5.7	49
7	OSJ	Alto Alegre do Maranhão	195.9	3.3	27
8	LMP	Bernardo do Mearim	191.6	3.2	18
9	FC	Lago dos Rodrigues	181.2	3.0	15
10	ABG	Lago da Pedra	115.9	1.9	17
11	SAJ	Lago da Pedra	114.4	1.9	10
12	SLE	Igarapé Grande	111.9	1.9	5
13	BFA	Pedreiras	111.0	1.9	13
14	SNE	Bernardo do Mearim	103.2	1.7	3
15	SDLE	São Luís Gonzaga do Maranhão	74.0	1.2	5
16	GRF	Paulo Ramos	71.7	1.2	5
17	IAR	Alto Alegre do Maranhão	69.0	1.2	15
18	MSM	Lago dos Rodrigues	58.9	1.0	8
19	SGD	Lago do Junco	47.8	0.8	4
20	SDNE	Trizidela do Vale	40.6	0.7	5
21	AAR	Trizidela do Vale	40.4	0.7	3
22	FRJ	Codó	37.0	0.5	4
23	SPF	Coroatá	34.0	0.6	9
	Total		4,206.4	70.0	494

			Industry branch			Commercialized volume (t)				purchase sites
	company	municipality	crude oil	soap & sanitizing	refined oil	direct purchase	third party	total	%	purchase sites
1.	Ioversal	Trizidela do Vale	X			138	1,312	1,450	24.2	166
2.	Iovesa	Pedreiras	X			-	766	766	12.8	95
3.	A.C. Leite	Trizidela do Vale	X		X	243	446	689	11.5	71
4.	Coppalj	Lago do Junco	X		X	668	-	668	11.1	13
5.	J. S. Oliveira	Alto Alegre do MA	X			192	424	616	10.3	62
6.	F. C. Oliveira	Codó	X	X		-	514	514	8.6	63
7.	Isomar	Pedreiras	X	X		-	455	455	7.6	72
8.	Nutrilar	Presidente Dutra	X	X		421	-	421	7.0	44
9.	O.G.V. Brasil	Esperantina-PI	X		X	-	157	157	2.6	5
10.	Sabão Lava-Tudo	Bacabal	X	X		-	62	62	1.0	3
11.	ASJB	S. José dos Basílios	X			37		37	0.6	5
12.	Saponóleo	Trizidela do Vale		X			-	-
13.	ÓleosMaia	Trizidela do Vale		X			-	-
14.	Artisanal producer of oil (azeite)					131	-	146	2.4	30
15.	Consumer sale at municipal fairs					13	-	13	0.2	10
	Total		11	6	3	1,843	4,136	5,995	100	639

	t of babassu nuts
	Agricultural census		PEVS				Field research
Municipality	2006	2017	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Alto Alegre do Maranhão	57	62	607	534	520	520	129.9
Bacabal	6,087	1,417	2,317	1.900	1,546	1,549	868.7
Bernardo do Mearim	16,523	261	1,148	1.108	1,025	1,017	229.8
Bom Lugar	14,610	634	929	771	748	730	275.5
Capinzal do Norte	112	245	869	848	801	789	79.8
Esperantinópolis	695	342	687	670	627	617	111.4
Igarapé Grande	1,080	22	855	807	763	745	202.8
Joselândia	1,351	169	1,236	1.167	1,068	1050	231.9
Lago da Pedra	1,417	141	1,050	903	881	881	90.5
Lago do Junco	1,243	488	897	863	832	821	637.8
Lago dos Rodrigues	901	111	1,392	1.302	1,230	1,212	250.3
Lima Campos	630	-	354	341	333	327	114.9
Olho D’Água das Cunhãs	126	175	655	557	534	530	140.1
Paulo Ramos	113	170	1,521	1.500	1,390	1,385	267.7
Pedreiras	1,378	63	3,290	3.076	3,276	3,222	50.6
Peritoró	350	153	353	321	289	263	203.6
Pio XII	1,697	220	498	495	480	475	141.5
Poção de Pedras	1,636	834	2,671	2.524	2,360	2,322	216.5
Santo Antônio dos Lopes	2,620	529	948	933	899	884	73.8
São José dos Basílios	801	160	319	315	308	309	52.8
São Luís Gonzaga do Maranhão	1,684	1,065	656	577	576	576	1,018.1
São Roberto	--	48	12	11	11	10	12.1
Satubinha	604	102	486	490	470	460	110.0
Trizidela do Vale	1,967	189	686	674	644	635	201.2
Vitorino Freire	564	282	866	745	725	720	283.9
25 municipalities	58,246	7,834	25,290	23.421	22,325	22,039	5,995.2
Brazil	147,865	15,774	54,330	50.804	48,706	47,640
% of Brazil	39.3%	49.7%	46.5%	46.1%	45.8%	46.2%

Rural households	Landholdings (Agricultural Census)									Rural households selling babassu nuts
Projection Demographic Census	Total landholdings		Landholdings informing babassu products							Projection PEVS	Field research
Projection Demographic Census	Total landholdings		Nuts	Whole fruit		Nuts+ fruit	Nuts	Whole fruit	Nuts+ fruit	Projection PEVS	Field research
2020	2006	2017		2006				2017		2020	2021
48,821	29,560	21,957	14,815	717	15,532		5,531	3,601	9,132	27,288	9,113

	PGPM-Bio for babassu nuts: 2016‒2021
	Volume (kg)	Value (R$)	Number of operations
Total	23,673,620	41,240,202	25,501
Mearim Valley: 25 municipalities	17,181,803	29,6276,215	20,499
% of total	72.6%	72.0%	80.4%

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E-mail: sober@sober.org.br

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[TFN1] ^*
Data from Lago do Junco and Lago dos Rodrigues excludes production from Coppalj. The cooperative is active in both municipalities and its production is reported separately.