Doing Business with Cooperatives of Cashew Products in Latin America

Abstract

Agricultural cooperatives conform one sector that traditionally has had great strength in the Latin American region. Today this sector is searching for alternatives of competition since the protective barriers that previously existed have been eliminated due to the impact of globalization that affects everyone. The cooperatives of the agricultural sector need to search for alternates of competition that will permit them not only to subsist but to regain the strength they once had. However, the cooperatives that depend on traditional activities continually face a higher level of difficulty in achieving that goal. There is an activity within the cooperative agricultural sector that powerfully calls attention to the strong possibility of insertion in the industrial and consumer markets that this facilitates. Such is the case of the cooperatives dedicated to the cultivation, industrial processing and commercialization of the cashew fruit (maranon). It is an interesting case to know and study as the products derived from this cultivation have a very high demand in the consumer market, both at the level of prices and of volume (cashew nuts); they are used in sophisticated markets (cashew oil) or they are used for internal consumption (eaten by consumers), which permits the complete utilization of the cultivation (pulp and seed).