CACAUWAY

Among the industries in the Medicilândia region, in Pará, CacauWay is the only one led by a cooperative – Coopatrans (Cooperativa Agroindustrial da Transamazônica). Created with the objective of increasing the income of the members, ensuring that the cacao beans produced by them were benefited on the spot, CacayWay has been producing Amazonian chocolates for ten years.

Coopatrans was founded in 2009 and in the following year it started operating a chocolate factory. Thus, it broke the paradigm of simply being a raw material supplier.

“The cooperative arose from the initiative of some farmers in the Medicilândia region, with the objective of preventing the cacao beans produced from passing through the hands of intermediaries and generating jobs in another state. Which is what happens a lot. We wanted to process the beans on the spot, generate more jobs and income for the local people”, says Hélia Félix, agronomist and cooperative engineer.

The mini industry started by Coopatrans to crush cacao beans soon seemed small. “With boldness”, as the entrepreneur defines, the group decided to produce chocolate: “Nobody knew how to make chocolate. We knew what it was like to produce beans. So, we learned. From 2010 to 2014 was the time we took to learn how to produce the right bean to make chocolate. It’s not just any bean. In 2014, we created a protocol, a quality standard for beans, to then produce chocolate”.

Since then, Cacauway has produced tablets, bars, truffles, cacao nibs, cocoa powder, among many other products, sold in physical stores in the state of Pará, in Santarém, Medicilândia, Altamira and Belém. But chocolate is also sold in several other states, in emporiums and stores – São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro – in addition to fairs and events.

The business managed to add 30% to 50% to the value of the beans, a percentage passed on to the cooperative members. It generated 20 direct jobs and more than 50 indirect ones. It also supports women artisans, who produce packaging for chocolates using the dehydrated cacao leaf and has a relationship with extractive communities in the Terra do Meio region, in Pará.

“We are very sure that the scenario is changing, that people’s conception is changing in relation to food, to know what chocolate is. They are more informed. We think of a future in which Cacauway is a major supplier of chocolate, Medicilândia is a major supplier of raw materials and that our cacao is all processed in the municipality, transformed into chocolate, and not sold as beans”, imagines Hélia.