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We pride ourselves on innovation, professional service and a strong dedication to making the world a better place. Our name comes from the rich, highly valued oil of the babacu or "babassu" palm, (Orbignya phalerata) a feather palm native to Brazil. It, like our company, yields many products of unique and exceptional quality.
Every part of the essential babassu palm is utilized to help provide a healthy and Earth-friendly lifestyle for hundreds of thousands of families. Likewise, we are dedicated to providing and growing our product line to better serve to enrich your life and the lives of those you love. It is our intent that Babacu International remains a socially conscious partner in worldwide sustainable agriculture.
Coming soon, we will also be introducing a new line of our Ultimate massage lotions featuring this ingredient.
For more information about babacu, please consider the following sources:
Equator Initiative
405 Lexington Avenue, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10174 USA
Tel: +1 212.457.1709
Fax: +1 212 457 1370
E-mail: EquatorInitiative@undp.org
Web: www.EquatorInitiative.org
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Babassu (or babacu, depending on the regional dilect) palm - tall feather palm of northern Brazil with hard-shelled nuts yielding valuable oil and a kind of vegetable ivory
babacu oil - fatty oil from kernels of babassu nuts similar to coconut oil
http://www.tve.org/ho/doc.cfm?aid=912
The Co-op Story: The Ancient Tradition of Women working with Women
Through the purchase of babassu oil and handcrafted babassu soap, Inara and the various cooperatives of this region have entered into an ancient ritual of reciprocity, based on an exchange that benefits these women, their families, and the environment they inhabit.
They call themselves "quebradeiras" (women who break the babassu coconut) - Inara calls them courageous women with a vision for a better life. For centuries, the majestic babassu palm trees have provided their precious oil for moisturizing and hydrating the body. The babassu oil and a flour called mesocarpo, also made from babassu, are used in cooking and for popular traditional remedies that aid gastritis and menstrual cramps. The empty shell of the babassu coconut is made into charcoal, so that no part of the fruit goes unused.
The ancient ritual of extracting the oil from the fruit kernels of the 40-foot babassu palm connects the women to the land and engages entire communities. Involving more than 400,000 families in the seasonal harvest of the babassu fruit, this tradition became jeopardized when landowners, wanting to plant pasture grasses for livestock, began denying access to the babassu palm. To preserve this timeless tradition of babassu harvesting, Free Babassu was born. Free Babassu is a movement of more than 300,000 women fighting for free access to Babassu palm trees in the state of Maranhão. Free Babassu works to guarantee the women's rights to the land in order to harvest the babassu coconut and continue their traditional way of life. Since 1999, the women have been able to enact municipal laws that permit free access and prohibit the destruction of the babassu palm. There are four municipals that have adopted the "Free Babassu" law and five more that are currently in the process.
During this effort to preserve the babassu palm, cooperatives began to form. Today, there are two main cooperatives that participate in the harvest and production of babassu. AMTR, The Women's Association of Rural Workers of Lago do Junco/Lago dos Rodrigues, and COOPALJ, The Cooperative of Small Producing Farmers and "Agro-extractors" in Lago do Junco.
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The mission of AMTR is to "integrate and bring together its members in search of a better way of life." Empowered by their success in gaining access to the babassu palm, many women have become health and education advocates in their communities. Their challenge, while protecting their beloved babassu palm tree, is to raise incomes, build schools and provide much needed health-related services, such as the construction of rudimentary bathrooms, the creation of medicinal gardens, and fighting to build medical facilities in the communities.
In the early to mid-nineties, twenty-three women of AMTR began to experiment with the production of soap made with babassu oil. The women received help from UNICEF and MISEREOR (a German agency) and built a soap factory called "babaçu livre"(Free Babassu) in the rural community of Ludivico. Women from the neighboring communities of São Manoel, Centrinho do Acrísio, and Ludivico began producing soap with a goal to yield 15,000 bars each month. Wild Earth is one company that recognizes and honors the efforts of these women and has entered into an exchange where it is currently the only U.S. Company that buys the finished handcrafted soap. Due to this arrangement, the women who craft the soap earn approximately twice the Brazilian national average wage for their work.
COPPALJ, a cooperative of small producers and agricultural extractors, was founded in April of 1991. COPPALJ is the result of the organization of these agricultural families to collectively produce and create a viable market for babassu. All of the members participate in the collection and harvest of babassu. The benefits that the cooperatives provide for its members is directly linked to the price of the babassu, which is far better than the previous commodity price since the cooperative has been able to eliminate the intermediary or middle buyer. Members of the cooperative also benefit from provision of basic foodstuffs available in small markets run by the cooperative in each community (nine in all). Finally, the cooperative members benefit from the distribution of the remaining cooperative funds at the end of each year.
The manufacturing of these products also helps with the preservation of the 10 million hectares of babassu palm trees in secondary forests throughout the state of Maranhão. The preservation of the land is the result of the work of ASSEMA, a non-governmental organization of rural workers (both men and women) whose mission is the building of sustainable development in rural communities through family farming. ASSEMA hopes to improve local income through the preservation and use of natural resources. Today, the ancient practice of women who break the babassu coconut creates a viable economic resource that has become the key to a global exchange supporting this vision.
"Oh! Women, I am calling you!"
(Women's song while extracting fruit from the babassu nut)
Oh! Women, I am calling you, this fight is yours
Get out of the kitchen and let's go to the streets
This fight is ours,
Don't get discouraged.
Our palm trees are all on the ground
Let's get together and fight
For the tree that feeds our children
You who break coconuts, care for your children, and wash clothes.
This is not your destiny.
Later you go to the fields, what a life.
You will break coconuts and break coconuts
The breaking of the coconut was what raised me.
My parents said, and my grandparents, too.
Now I am seeing that it is ending.
The landowner is the one who is devouring it.
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