Com. Ético E Solidários De Prods. Agro. E Artes.do Brasil Ltda

To talk about commercial support in Brasil is not an easy task because, although we take part in it, there isn`t any organised data that could make an analysis of the situation possible. Fair trade started in Brasil in the seventies through the work of European NGOs connected to churches that were organising groups of countryside workers and informal hand-craft commerce. <br><br>In Brasil, the fair trade market developed through projects like “Suco Justo”, FLO`s pilot project which involves orange producers who live in Praraná/PR. The project makes possible the sale of orange juice produced by the Paraná Citrus S/A in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. This project is supervised by the Conselho Municipal dos Direitos das Crianças e do Adolescente (Municipal Council of Children and Teenagers rights) and the local Town council and is monitored by the B&SD, which makes the link between producers and consumers. Besides selling an excellent quality product (in a recent research, promoted by a Swiss NGO that protects consumers rights, the juice from Paraná was considered one of the best among competitors), the project made social improvement possible and the regularisation of the producers as an obligation to be able to receive certification. Another area that has benefited is coffee, organizations such as ACARAM (Articulação Central das Associações Rurais de Ajuda Mútua) in Ji-Paraná, Rondônia and FACI (Federação de Associações Comunitárias Rurais de Iúna e Irupi) in Iúna-ES, are already in the market through FLO. <br><br>Up to the end of the last century the Brazilian experience in the commercial supported market was concentrated almost exclusively in being producers. <br><br>But from the year 2000 advances were made in discussions about the development of the internal market, the rules for certification, the politics of aid to small producers. <br><br>One of the significant Brazilian experiences was the one from Wolrd Vision Brasil. Its Commercial Support programme started in 1999 supporting small agricultural and hand-craft producers and developing the internal market. Through local associations with NGOs such as AACC and Terra Viva, it was possible to develop the project in other regions. The international association was fundamental to the commercialization of agriculture products to organizations such as Claro (Switzerland), EZA (Austria) and CTM (Italy). In the hand-craft area, associations with “Lojas do Mundo” (Wolrd Shops) from Benelux was fundamental to the communities. All products received support from institutions such as FLO and IFAT. In the internal market, many projects were developed together with supermarket chains and commercial shops to increase the channels of sales. There were sales to supermarkets like Carrefour, Bompreço and Viabox. Nowadays World Vision works together with BID to develop projects and strengthen companies which will offer commercial services to defend the interests of small producers with fair prices to the communities, in both national and international markets. <br><br>In this way, World Vision concentrates its activities in three basic principles: the support to the productive basis, the development of a commercial market and the creation of a consistent and ethical market in search of fairness. <br><br>Nowadays, there is a big movement in Brasil trying to organise the area of fair trade. Organisations such as World Vision Brasil, FASE, Friedrich Ebert Fondation – ILDES, Viva Rio, Apaeb, among others, are organising meetings and works groups with the aim to discuss and mobilize the economic sectors of the country. One of the initiatives is the creation of a forum of debate through which the formalisation of three councils of work: one to represent the producers, the other to represent the NGOs and the last to represent the Government and other organisations. Recently there was a congress to discuss the theme: national market, although it was not very successful because the data is not very trustworthy. <br><br>Organic agriculture is one of the internal market sectors that has been expanded. It is possible to map fairs, sales locations, supermarkets and home deliveries using a sales strategy. The majority of the organisations that work in it represent the interests of families of agriculture workers. <br><br><br>It is impossible to talk about fair trade without talking about hand-craft. In terms of exportations Brasil is not noted for its hand-craft products. The biggest proof is that it is almost impossible to find Brazilian hand-crafts in “Lojas do Mundo” (World Shops) in Europe. But the national market has just gained distinction with the opening of the first official fair and solidarity trade shop to sell hand-crafts. It is the Mundaréu shop. The proposal is to offer products that come from many different regions of the country for sale in São Paulo and its public are the ones who are willing to pay more for a product that is linked to solidarity. <br><br><br>In terms of certification of the internal market there is not yet regularised . At the moment the organizations that deal with these producers certify the products with their own marks. This is the case of Viva Rio organization that puts a sticker with its name as a way to give guarantee to the products that are sold in the solidarity sales locations. <br><br><br>The biggest challenge is how to organise the workers so that they can obtain growth in the internal market, and how to finance these strategies, whilst the majority of workers` associations have problems in the commercial and technical support areas. The Brazilian social responsibility has been growing in recent years, increasing the sales of products that have the differential of coming from the Commercial Support. People are becoming more aware about their responsibilities when they go shopping; companies are more receptive to fair trade workshops. That is why it is possible to believe that the national market has a great potential to receive products from Commercial Support. <br>