Project led by the Instituto Fronteiras do Desenvolvimento and Instituto Regenera, with support from iCS, aims to encourage key actors to promote more virtuous, regenerative and resilient local chains

Local, healthy and sustainable agricultural products are almost a rarity in the Amazonian capitals. This happens both due to logistical and trading limitations, as well as cultural factors that stigmatize local production and/or that coming from the standing forest. How can this issue be resolved? The Instituto Fronteiras do Desenvolvimento and the Instituto Regenera, with support from iCS and in conjunction with local initiatives, seek precisely to find more favorable conditions for the implementation of solutions for the fair and transparent trade of the agricultural products of the region. The first city to be a focus of the study is Belém (PA), and one of the practical results of the work was published in July: the guide “Best Practices for the Trading of Agroecological Foods.”

It includes best practices and social technologies that are mainly aimed at all those who “already undertake or intend to undertake regenerative food systems, so that they can benefit from the lessons of other initiatives without repeating the many mistakes made in the past and, consequently, they can make more satisfactory progress in their journey. This involves more informed and conscious choices that value products and initiatives that maintain the standing forest.” The study aims to encourage key actors to promote more virtuous, regenerative and resilient food chains.

Among the information made available in the document, such as examples of best practices in the world and in Brazil and a summary of the social technology co-created with the local initiatives, there are seven formats for the trading of local, healthy and sustainable agricultural products:

• Fairs
• Delivery
• Marketplace
• Processing and trading
• Coordination and intermediation
• Physical store
• Consumer group

Another publication that is already available from the Project From the Amazon to Belém is the “Communication Guide for the Fair Trading of Agroecological Foods.” This has two objectives: to provide guidance regarding the main aspects that deserve attention when there is the importance of communication for the expansion of the food market without pesticides, and to offer inspiration for the improvement of practices, contributing to make the market more inclusive, educational and transparent.

The guide answers common although fundamental questions such as “why communicate,” “communicate with whom” (captive consumers, interested consumers, conventional consumers, public opinion, network of partners and corporate customers), “communicate where,” “communicate when” and “who looks after the communication” – fundamental questioning because in areas of food trading it is common for the people involved to have considerable knowledge about production and sales, but they are often not used to working with the diversity of the possible formats of disclosure.

The documents were launched at the online event “From the Amazon to Belém: How to strengthen the fair trade of agroecological foods?”.

Learn more about the project here.