Throughout the month of May, AMAZ and partners promote webinars and lives to debate important issues for the impact ecosystem of the Amazon.
Continuing the series held in partnership with Revista Página 22, two more webinars will be held, mediated by Mariano Cenamo, CEO of AMAZ and director of new business at Idesam:
Entrepreneur in the Amazon, with the participation of Denis Minev (Bemol), Ana Bastida (AMAZ). Renato Farias (ICV) and entrepreneurs Andrezza Spexoto (IOV) and Macaulay Abreu (Onisafra). This meeting will discuss challenges and opportunities to undertake in the region.It will be held on May 6th at 5 pm (BSB). To follow up, click here.
New markets for Amazonian business, with the participation of Laura Motta (Free Market), Ana Bastida (AMAZ), Mariana Faro (Peabiru Institute), Raphael Medeiros (Amazon Entrepreneurship Center) and entrepreneurs Joanna Martins (Manioca) and Hermógenes Sá (Peabiru Forest Products) .It will be held on May 13th at 5 pm (BSB). To follow up, click here.
Manioca has just launched a version of Tucupi, a delicious northern broth, which invites Brazilians to use the ingredient as a seasoning for poultry, fish, seafood, rice and other foods.
One of the company's flagships, the Tucupi, already sold in 1 liter bottles, arrives to the public in a new 300ml package, ready to be used at home. With this, the brand inaugurates a new way to enjoy one of the most famous Brazilian ingredients: seasoning for everyday life.
In the Amazon, the broth is consumed as an integral part of dishes such as duck in tucupi and tacacá. Now, the idea is to spread the flavor across the country as a seasoning for poultry, fish, seafood, rice and whatever the imagination allows.
“Tucupi is an incredible product, 99% that people who taste the broth like. It has a very good acceptance and has the potential to be known and consumed around the world. With this in mind, we started to question ourselves about how to make this product common in Brazilians' lives. Stop being a delicacy for great chefs and become an essential spice in the kitchen of every Brazilian. As happened with the cheese bread, which was from Minas, and the açaí, which was from Pará, and now both are considered Brazilian products”, defines Joanna Martins, CEO of Manioca.
The company also recently launched the Sementes line, which offers cumaru, cocoa nibs, nuts and, soon, puxuri. And it started to market its products in Portugal.
2020 was dedicated to better understanding the business and possible paths. Seeking to understand the consumer's perspective, the company realized the desire for practicality and natural foods. Thus, the guideline emerged to make Amazonian products more accessible and simple, and at the same time maintain the appreciation of flavor. Solutions that are tasty, that do not harm your health and that are practical, all using and valuing the ingredients of the greatest biodiversity on the planet. This orientation is present in the new products that will be launched throughout this year.
One of the biggest bottlenecks for business in the Amazon lies in logistics and the transport of people and goods. And it is precisely in solving this challenge that Navegam has been working, seeking to optimize river transport in the Amazon region, facilitating access to information on freight and passenger transport.
Founded in 2018, the startup develops a platform for managing data and various logistical information, such as number of people, prices, sales per branch, stocking controls, etc. The solution is focused on river transport in the Amazon, but it also has functionalities for road transport in the region.
The initiative of startup consists of an internal module for vessels to manage information about ticket sales and an application to make sales, both on the vessel itself and at the agencies that offer these tickets. It currently serves 24 vessels with mixed transport of people and goods, a number that should increase in the short and medium term.
The public of interest includes the population of the Amazon regions that depend on river transport in their daily travel routine, companies that transport inputs and final products, travel agencies and boat owners.
Navegam was accelerated by the Program in 2020. With the covid-19 pandemic imposing stoppages and social isolation, the startup, which started that year with a well-defined roadmap headed for the launch of new services, had to review priorities.
The ticket sales operation was paralyzed for almost five months and sales fell by almost 90%. On the other hand, the logistics operation had a growth of almost 2001TP1Q, which allowed the financial health of the business to continue operating.
The company intermediates about 45 freights a day, but during the pandemic that number reached 200. “It was a very difficult year for everyone, and our state suffered a lot during the pandemic. Many companies went bankrupt. And Navegam managed to stand up and even grew in this complex scenario”, assesses the company's CEO, Geferson Oliveira.
new breath
In 2021, Navegam, which currently operates in the state of Amazonas, will expand its operations to Pará, Amapá and Rondônia. For this, they are hiring more professionals and expanding the company's team.
In addition to having recently received an investment of 425,000 reais, Navegam is negotiating with two impact funds. The total investment is expected to reach up to R$ 2 million.
Geferson believes that participating in the PPA Acceleration Program contributed a lot to the growth of the company and of the partners themselves, which enabled them to mature and be able to review investments by Brazilian and international funds.
“The Program team has helped Navegam a lot in all aspects, whether it's providing support in training, consulting, legal advice, in short. The most interesting thing was that the acceleration process was also a process of personal growth for all of us, as entrepreneurs. Today we have another vision of what an impact business in the Amazon is.”
Inspired by the rubber tappers who still work in several extractive communities in the Amazon, surviving with difficulty, but at the same time caring for and keeping the forest from which they earn their living, Tênis Seringô arrives on the market.
Large shoe brands have historically always used natural rubber in their production lines. However, little by little, this raw material was practically all replaced by petroleum-based materials, such as synthetic rubber, EVA and polyurethane.
Seringô, which only works with vegetable raw materials from the Amazon, has developed a shoe with more than 95% of them in its composition, rescuing a little of this past, while aiming at the need to conserve the forest and its biodiversity and also fight the climate emergency.
All components are vegetable. The sole and the insole are produced from natural and organic rubber, in a composition with vegetable fibers from the micronization of the açaí kernel. The upper is assembled from jute, an Amazonian fiber, or from jute dubbed with rubber. The shoelace is also a rubberized jute tape with organic latex and rubber tip. And the lining is made from organic cotton, dubbed with a natural organic latex foam.
A sustainable and biodegradable product, Tênis Seringô is produced by Coopereco (Cooperative for the Production of Eco-Extractivists in the Amazon), formed by rubber tappers and artisans who produce rubber in the state of Pará, especially in Marajó and in the region of Santarém.
The sneakers, available in two models, will be on sale soon at Bemglô, in São Paulo, and at Ver-o-pesinho, at Shopping Boulevard, in Belém. segingo.eco.br, with free shipping throughout Brazil.
In March, participants and supporters of the Amazonia em casa, Floresta em pé (Amazon in Home, Standing Forest) movement gathered to assess the activities carried out in 2020 and outline exercises for the future.
Started in June last year, the movement was one of the solutions developed for Amazonian businesses to continue their sales during the pandemic, encouraging the adoption of e-commerce strategies.
As a result, businesses that had a drastic reduction in sales in 2020 (a drop from 70% to 90% in sales) started their journey in e-commerce and reaped good results, whether in sales or visibility.
Started from a pilot project in June 2020, in partnership with Mercado Livre, the movement has been growing and unfolding, with specific activation milestones in September, the month of the Amazon, on Green Friday in November and also on the occasion of Christmas .
Among the strategies and actions adopted by the movement are solutions in the area of logistics and storage - consolidation of shared stock in São Paulo, logistics coordination, handling and delivery to the final consumer, 24-hour delivery in São Paulo and 48-hour delivery to other places in the Brazil, freight subsidy, taxes and storage, free transfer of goods on the Manaus – São Paulo route. In the commercial area, an exclusive form was developed for B2B sales, in addition to the creation of a catalog and commercial materials, corporate baskets and for B2C.
In the area of communication and marketing, the movement promoted the activation of influencers through lives with Amazonian entrepreneurs, contact with opinion makers, in addition to developing an identity and website aimed at the initiative. A network of 35 digital influencers, including journalists, chefs, artists and nutrition and health professionals, was involved in the activation actions.
Solutions to 2020 challenges guide the next steps
The movement's next steps include the search for solutions to a series of challenges that faced learning throughout 2020, classified into two axes: market access for Amazonian socio-biodiversity and structuring the movement.
In the first axis, the challenges are placed in the basic structuring of the Amazonian businesses, in the expansion and consolidation of the logistic and commercial infrastructure for market access, in the scaling of commercial logistic solutions to include more Amazonian businesses, in expanding the traceability of products and in boosting the bioeconomy of the standing forest.
In the movement's structuring axis, the proposals include the structuring of governance and the operational core, medium and long-term financing strategies, enabling the measurement of positive impact at the end, development of a membership plan, strengthening the commercial front and communication and marketing strategies, integration and automation of inventory and logistics databases.
The group that integrates the movement Amazon at home, Forest standing includes 16 Amazon brands - of which ten are part of the PPA Acceleration Program portfolio – and is a realization of Mercado Livre, Acceleration Program and Business of Impact of PPA, Idesam and Climate Ventures. It is co-organized by Amazônia Hub, Biobá and Instituto Auá, in partnership with Costa Brasil, Lothar Consultoria e Logística e Origens Brasil and institutional support from Fundo Vale, Instituto Clima e Sociedade, Climate and Land Use Alliance and Instituto Humanize.
