Tecnologias sociais levando à competitividade: o caso do Instituto Cabruca na Região Cacaueira da Bahia

Abstract

The Cocoa Region in Bahia (Brazil) is located in a macro - region known as the South Coast, in an area of great ecological significance, which shelters a rich biodiversity belonging to Atlantic Forest species. It has about 32 000 farmers and 565 thousands of hectares with cocoa plants. The region has produced about 400,000 ton of cocoa beans in the 80s and part of this quantity received the denomination of Bahia Cocoa Superior from the international market, due the way in which occurs the production process a nd drying. The award paid by the international market was due to singularities like plants growing under trees shade, as an agroforestry system known as “cabruca”, involving rich knowledge at ethno botanic , intensively using the labor and getting high cult ural value. This paper attempts to relate as the Cabruca Institute, a civil society organization, seeks to preserve and promote this kind of cocoa beans productive process, combining ecological and social aspects with an efficiently production and marketin g. The method adopted was the case study based on secondary sources like Cabruca’s files and others cataloged as research reports, site, participant observation and brief interviews. The results show that even using labor - intensive technologies cocoa beans produced by agroforestry is competitive at the international market.