Monthly Archives: September 2023

Photo: Divulgação Assobio

At the end of August, 25 businesses operating in the Amazon met in Belém (PA) and founded Assobio (Associação de Negócios da Sociobioeconomia da Amazônia).

With the intention of acting as a network, seeking to strengthen cooperation and representation between businesses linked to socio-biodiversity in the region, the association brings together businesses from different sectors, including food, beverages, cosmetics, fashion and services that have the common purpose of promoting development sustainable development in the Amazon, encourage entrepreneurship and enhance coordination between actors.

AMAZ was present, as an observer, at the meeting that approved the statute of Assobio, which has many businesses on its staff that have gone through days promoted by the accelerator and also by the Floresta+ Aceleraçao Program, promoted by the UNDP and the MMA, whose implementing partners Idesam, AMAZ and Sense-Lab. And also businesses that are now part of the accelerator’s portfolio.

Assobio informs that it has support from the Certi Foundation, GIZ, Clua and CESUPA.

“Generating innovative and sustainable businesses in the Amazon is, in addition to an opportunity for the region, a new way for Brazil to value its riches and generate development from them, acting locally and thinking globally. We often try to copy foreign models and the businesses that associate here show innovations based on our biome and our identity, a timely and necessary path when we have the privilege and responsibility of being born with an Amazon at home”, highlights Paulo Reis , president of the association.

Around four months after launching an innovative product – powdered nut milk –, Mahta continues to develop products, promoting improvements in packaging and offering practicality and sustainability options.

In August, the business launched a new packaging size for its first market product, Superfoods Amazônicos em Pó, offering 840g (economy) and 360g options. Powdered chestnut milk was already available in 240g and 600h packaging.

Furthermore, Mahta changed the packaging material, which is now made from sugarcane-based bioplastic, with direct printing, carrying the I'm Green seal – which provides a lower carbon footprint and ease of recycling.

And another new addition is coming: a super coffee with Amazonian and natural ingredients – Café Apuí Agroflorestal, guaraná from Maués and Marapuama.

Chestnut milk has good public acceptance

The chestnut milk powder was launched during Naturaltech, the largest natural products fair in Latin America, in June this year, at which time Mahta also announced the arrival of a new partner: Chef Thiago Castanho from Pará.

“The acceptance of milk by the public has been very good. The product's differentiator, in addition to innovation, is that it replaces animal milk, having great appeal to vegans and, at the same time, contributing to the climate issue, both by conserving areas and by not emitting methane from the production of animal milk. In addition to being the first plant-based nut milk powder in the world, it is 100% regenerative, because the nuts come from the extraction of small producers in the Amazon”, says Max Petrucci, founding partner of Mahta.

Max highlights the reduction in carbon footprint and several other advantage points: “You carry a 240-gram package instead of 5 liters, which is the amount of nut milk that the economical package produces. In addition to the transportation issue, there are five fewer tetrapacks per package. And the possibility of preparing as much milk as the person wants, in different dilutions. The price per liter of milk in the signature economical packaging (600g) is around 30% cheaper than similar liquids purchased at the supermarket.”

Since the product was launched on the market, sales of nut milk powder have been growing by around 30% per month. And Mahta projects the company to grow by 600% between January 2023 and January 2024.

Photo: ACAE/Disclosure

Know to communicate. This is the motto of the expedition that Academia Amazônia Ensina (ACAE) is promoting on October 1st to 6th, aimed at members of Aberje (Brazilian Business Communication Association), and which is sponsored by the German multinational Basf and Itaú Unibanco, in addition to support from Bayer and LATAM Airlines.

ACAE has prepared an exclusive itinerary for professionals who work with communication and sustainability in companies. The journey "From Traditional Knowledge to Contemporary Science: training Communicators for Sustainability” provides contact with people, spaces and dynamics that cover topics such as research and development, bioeconomy, community-based entrepreneurship and sustainable production chains, for example. Participants will also attend lectures, technical visits, take cultural tours and discover guided trails, both by land and water.

Maria Eugênia Rocha Tezza, executive director of ACAE, highlights that one of the great differences of the expeditions promoted by the Academy is that the experience is guided by people who live in the Amazon, such as community leaders, representatives of Brazilian teaching and research institutions and communicators locations.

“When we talk about the Amazon, we talk mainly about the people, the people of the forest. We have an immensity of green forest forming incalculable biodiversity, but people are the highlight of this specific journey, which focuses on the power of communication to promote sustainable practices and encourage conservation and protection of nature. Let's talk to the researcher born and raised in Manaus, with very in-depth and specific knowledge about a certain area of nature, and with the riverside, tourism and community-based entrepreneur, for example. They are rich people and stories, and breathtaking experiences”, says Maria Eugênia.

ACAE carries out five expeditions in 2023

This year, Academia Amazônia Ensina promoted two expeditions open to the public, in January and July. In the latter, it was supported by Emissora Globo in Paraná, which is preparing a special article on connections between the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest. In May, a third expedition was promoted, this time involving two theater troupes, one Brazilian and the other from Denmark.

In August, ACAE carried out the Latimpacto expedition, aimed at an international audience who were in Brazil participating in the  Impact Minds 2023 Conference: Stand Together 2023, looking at business challenges and opportunities related to the bioeconomy. And it is now heading towards the fifth expedition of the year together with Aberje, involving the areas of sustainability, business and corporate communication and corporate social management.

“We are very happy with the path ACAE has taken. We realize the importance of being in these different environments so that dialogue can happen, but also so that concrete things can happen. I feel that the Academy is playing its role, as always proposed, which is to prepare people for the economic, social and ecological challenges of the 21st century. And we are very excited about this opening, especially with the B2B and corporate public, to understand the Amazon in this contextualized way”, highlights Maria Eugênia.

And ACAE is also now open for registration for the January 2024 expedition, open to the public, having already filled 50% of the vacancies offered.

Photo: Rodrigo Duarte

Group meets in October, in Manaus, to immerse activities aimed at developing a business plan and socio-environmental impact thesis 

From October 16th to 20th, entrepreneurs from 9 businesses selected by the impact accelerator AMAZ to participate in the pre-acceleration process will be together in Manaus, on an immersion journey to develop their business plans and socio-environmental impact thesis in the Amazon.  

The businesses that will participate in the pre-acceleration process are: Amaz amazon Super Plants, Apoena, ATLAS Florestal, BioAmazon, Coordenada Rural, FarFarm, Flor da Samaúma, MOMA and Zeno Nativo. They were selected from among 112 registrants in the AMAZ 2023 Call. 

The pre-acceleration begins with the in-person meeting and continues over the course of a month, virtually, with access to advice, mentoring and technical support from the AMAZ team and Idesam (Institute for Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon). 

The objective is to help entrepreneurs understand and maximize their business growth capacity in financial, technical, operational terms and, especially, positive socio-environmental impact. 

The performance of the businesses during this period will define those that will be accelerated and receive investment in 2024, becoming part of the AMAZ portfolio. 

“Pre-acceleration is the final stage of the selection process, but it is also where we begin to understand business needs to chart the acceleration journey for those who are selected. All 9 who made it this far will receive our support for a month in the pre-acceleration phase, which qualifies them to seek new support or join other acceleration processes, as well as in the design of their impact theses,” defines Rafael Moreira Ribeiro, responsible for business selection at AMAZ/Idesam. 

The 9 finalist businesses work with innovative solutions for the development of products and services in strategic value chains for the conservation of the Amazon, such as reforestation and agroforestry production, agriculture, livestock and sustainable rural production, socio-biodiversity products and cosmetics. 

They are located in the states of Pará, Amazonas, Amapá, Maranhão, São Paulo and Santa Mônica, California (USA). Call 2023 made it possible to register businesses whose operations take place in the Legal Amazon, but which could also be based in other regions of the country. 

The AMAZ selection focused on early stage businesses that have already validated their product or service in the market and preferably are already earning more than R$ 500 thousand per year. Most businesses are in the traction and organization phase. Some projects in earlier stages were selected for presenting innovative solutions with the potential to gain scale post-acceleration. 

The projects selected for acceleration and investment in 2024 will be announced in December. 

Discover the businesses selected for pre-acceleration: 

AMAZ Amazon Super Plants = Works with the creation of drinks made with sustainable ingredients that contribute to the regeneration of the planet and people's well-being. The startup was built around Regenerative Agroforestry and supporting biodiversity in the Amazon Rainforest, using ingredients such as yerba mate, Suma Root, mushrooms from the Yanomami Forest and Muirapuama bark and guaraná. It is headquartered in Santa Monica, California (USA).  

Apoena = Seeks to improve the working conditions of babassu breakers, increase the economic and marketing potential of Coco Babaçu and the generation of income for the people involved. Location of activity: state of MA. 

BioAmazon = Technology-based company focused on developing new bio-inputs for agribusiness. It provides its customers with a Bioprocess as a Service (BPaaS) platform. It seeks to provide rural farmers with practicality and safety in the production of microorganisms through their own production of bio-inputs. Location of operation: state of AM. 

Samaúma Flower = It operates in bioeconomy and ecotourism and seeks to expand the production capacity of açaí, cupuaçu and taperebá wines on the farm where a winery for these products is located. Location of activity: state of AP. 

Native Zeno= Production of fine native cocoa beans and high quality Brazil nuts. The project seeks to expand the production and sale of cocoa beans and nuts. Location of activity: state of PA. 

ATLAS Forestry = Productive forest restoration company. Plans, models, implements and monitors productive forests, with a multidisciplinary technical council capable of developing regenerative and personalized actions. It operates across the entire forest restoration and agroforestry chain. It is headquartered in the state of SP. 

Rural Coordinate = It consists of the proposal of socio-productive assistance to family farmers who have cocoa cultivation in an Agroforestry System and dual-purpose cattle farming as their main sources of income, in order to enable the execution of actions aimed at improving the quality of life with an increase in productivity and income generation for rural producers. Location of activity: state of PA. 

FarFarm = Consultancy that helps companies enhance their production chains as protagonists of brands, through relationships with communities in the Amazon. Location of operation: states of PA and MT. 

MOMA = Natural cosmetics made with Amazonian oil inputs and 100% compostable packaging, which seek to strengthen their value chains through fair trade and supplier training. It is headquartered in SP. Locations of operation: states of PA, AM, AC and AP. 

About AMAZ  

THE AMAZ impact accelerator is coordinated by Idesam (Institute for Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon), and has a hybrid financing fund (blended finance) of R$ 25 million for investment in impact businesses over the next five years, the first aimed exclusively at the region. Its founders and strategic partners are Fundo Vale, Instituto humanize, ICS (Instituto Clima e Sociedade), Good Energies Foundation, Fundo JBS pela Amazônia and PPA (Plataforma Parceiros pela Amazônia). It also has a wide network of partners such as Move.Social, Sense-Lab, ICE, Climate Ventures, SBSA Advogados, Mercado Livre, Costa Brasil and private investors.