In addition to guaranteeing visibility for their produce, the initiative provides educational information about the family farming production chain and receives support from CESE
Family farming produce from the caatinga has a new arena for visibility and sales. This is the Central Caatinga Warehouse (Central Armazém da Caatinga), a strategic commercial space inaugurated on 27 April in Juazeiro (Bahia), and product of work undertaken by the Commercialization Centre of Caatinga Cooperatives (Central de Comercialização das Cooperativas da Caatinga). Through CESE’s Small Projects Programme, the initiative has been able to incorporate more informational and educational elements to its work.
Located on the banks of the São Francisco River, inside the Vila Bossa Nova building, the Caatinga Warehouse brings together 4 thousand family farming products from various regions in Bahia’s caatinga biome, as well as making connections with other Brazilian biomes. Divided into four areas, the space includes a bar and a traditional North-eastern restaurant, with cuisine that makes use of family farming produce, a specialized shop for this produce and a market selling organic/agro-ecological products.
According to Adilson Ribeiro, President of the Commercialization Centre of Caatinga Cooperatives, the aim of the warehouse is to sell family farming produce and reach a wider and more diverse audience. “The idea of this new space is to provide quality produce and strengthen our visibility strategy for family-based production. As a shop window and as somewhere that generates business opportunities for family farmers.”
Shoppers will be able to buy sweets, jams, fruit pulp, juice, fresh fruit, compotes, craft beer, ice lollies and ice-creams, fish fillets and sausages, goat and sheep meat, goat’s milk and derivatives, free-range eggs, gum biscuits, sequilhos, honey, and licuri coconut and its derivatives. The commercial strategy also includes running a virtual shop able to deliver across the whole country (www.armazemdacaatinga.com.br).
Sustainable development – To meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which have an organizational activity target of 2030, CESE is supporting communication activities focused on educational information, for consumers, small-scale farmers and buyers, explaining the origins of these products, their importance and why it is so important to strengthen this production chain.
“The CESE support relates to education about the business. Communicating with the producer, with the buyer, with the consumer. It’s important to tell them how the product is made, where it comes from. CESE is a long-standing partner and plays a fundamental role in family farming, with very significant practices for our field,” Adilson explained.
In his opinion, CESE’s ongoing support makes it a decisive ally for the development of strategies for farmers in the caatinga, creating the necessary conditions for the emergence of initiatives such as the warehouse. Sustainability is the initiative’s main focus, which, by promoting stronger family farming through fair trade and solidarity with its products, also values the production chain from the countryside to the table, generating employment and income, with social and economic returns for rural communities and small-scale producers.
The space relies on partnership with and management by the Commercialization Centre of Caatinga Cooperatives, which is a commercialization network operating in 5 identity-based territories, representing 14 cooperatives and 27 community associations, and selling products from at least 20 family farming enterprises.
The initiative works in partnership with the Bahia State Government, through its Department of Rural Development (Secretaria de Desenvolvimento Rural: SDR), and the Regional Development and Action Company (Companhia de Desenvolvimento e Ação Regional: CAR).