Exchange of experience
among nut crackers
Project duration: 2 years (2023–2024)
Country: Brazil (Bahia)
Partner organization: Casa de Maria, Brazil
The mothers and grandmothers of the current generation already used the licuri coconuts growing in their gardens to feed their families. Now the female coconut pickers have joined forces to professionalize their traditional craft and exploit the coconuts’ potential. They already have the equipment they need, e. g. the machines to break and dry the nuts, as well as an ice-cream maker.
To improve their economic and social standing, 20 licuri pickers, most of them single mothers currently living on welfare, want to develop the licuri oil they produce, as well as other products, to marketability with the help of the Casa de Maria cooperative.
In the past, focus women has already supported the babaçu nut crackers organized within the COOAAFA cooperative. This help also focused on professionalizing production and marketing of the locally produced babaçu products and empowering the women’s community. One of the current project’s goals is to enable an exchange of experience between both cooperatives that have to deal with similar problems.
Moreover, this is a first step towards the creation of a support network for and by women’s cooperatives that will give them a chance to stand against the patriarchy that prevails in Brazil’s North-East.
