São Paulo – Rondônia’s firm Castanhas Ouro Verde is based in Jaru, which is south from Porto Velho, between Ariquemes and Ji-Paraná. The four-year-old company carries out the shell extraction, industrialization and conditioning of Brazil nuts in Rondônia, and sells them in 20-kg packages with a shelf life of 24 months.
The domestic market accounts for 70% of the sales, and exports began last year, with clients in Algeria, France, and the United States. “Our top client is currently Algeria, an importer that buys from us and distributes across the region,” CEO Ítalo Toneto told ANBA during the Rondônia Rural Show Internacional that took place in Ji-Paraná.
Toneto and the firm’s Quality manager Geremias Oliveira were participating in the multisectoral show with their own stand. The CEO said he wants to boost exports. Pictured, Oliveira (L) e Toneto (R).
“We’ve started selling nuts in 2021, and in 2022 exports began. We’ve already shipped four containers to Algeria, that is, 1,300 20-kg boxes, adding up to 104 tonnes this year alone,” he said.
Oliveira said their main competition are companies from Bolivia and Peru, and Brazil ranks third in the Brazil nut industry. “They’ve pioneered for a long time in the nut industrial process. In the region of Acre and Amazonas, they buy the nuts before the harvest, for a better price. Only 20% of the nuts made in Brazil are industrialized. The other 80% are exported in shell to neighboring Bolivia and Peru, so that’s why they have a better export index of the shell-less nut,” said the manager.
But Toneto said that if Castanhas Ouro Verde has anything to say about it, soon these numbers will diminish for the competition. “We want the nuts to stay in Brazil and to be industrialized here, to be exported from here with a higher value added,” he said.
The 20-kg packages are sold domestically to distributors that in turn sell them to the food industry and supermarkets.
Castanhas Ouro Verde plans on launching smaller packages of 70 grams, 130 grams, 250 grams, and 500 grams, to access the direct market.
“Our flagship is now the 20-kg nut package. The small-package line is set to be launched in the second half of the year, and our goal is to reach natural product emporiums throughout Brazil,” said Oliveira.
The plant’s daily output is 1,500 to 1,800 kilos of shell-less nuts. Manufacturing 1 kilo of Brazil nuts takes 3 to 4 kilos of nuts in shell. Shells and other waste are used as biofuel for steam power generation, and the electricity of the factory comes from a mini solar plant. “We’re a self-sustainable factory,” said Oliveira.
The firm already has certifications of sustainability, organic production, and fair trade, and it seeks to give it back to the families of harvesters by providing training, building schools and buying for a fair price.
The journalist traveled at the invitation of Rondônia’s Secretariat for Economic Development (SEDEC).
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Translated by Guilherme Miranda
