To manage to produce at least 16 tons of pataqueira, a plant typical of flooded areas of the Amazon, until then without a defined production system, for the launch of a new line of Ekos products. This was the challenge that came to the table of Daniel Oliveira, an agronomist working in the Bioagriculture area of Natura. This area, which is part of the Advanced Research Directorate, is responsible for enabling Natura to use plants with cosmetic potential, through the development of cultivation, forest management, and other techniques.
The tradition and softness of the pataqueira essence sparked the interest of Natura's official perfumer, Verônica Kato, back in 2007. At that time, some studies were conducted with the plant, and the innovation area even generated the essential oil of pataqueira, which passed all tests and approval processes. However, there was not enough knowledge at that moment to carry out large-scale production of the plant. It was up to Daniel to take on the challenge of developing the essential oil supply chain of pataqueira, and he knew that the task would not be easy.
The year was 2012, and Daniel was already aware of Natura's desire to use the essence of pataqueira in its products. The plant, native to the Amazon, is one of the ingredients present in the "banho de cheiro," traditional in the São João festivities and carimbó parties held in Belém, Pará. In a basin, various plants and herbs are soaked to release their essential oils. The resulting aromatic water from the process is placed at the entrance of the parties, available for those who wish to smell good and attract positive energies.
The obstacles began with cultivation. Pataqueira is a plant that grows along the banks of Amazonian igarapés, in soils flooded with water. These regions are considered permanent preservation areas, untouched natural areas that cannot be cultivated for economic purposes. “We needed to ensure the volume and quantity of the plant at the necessary quality standard to launch the product and maintain the line. And for that, we needed to find ways to cultivate this almost aquatic plant in areas other than its natural habitat,” he summarizes.
To achieve the goal, the agronomist turned to the partnership and knowledge of local communities.
A new way to cultivate, together
“In the local tradition, the cultivation of pataqueira is done using fire. The vegetation around the igarapé is burned, and then the plant is sown. We needed to find a new way, without using fire, without using chemical inputs, and outside the igarapés, which are protected areas,” Daniel summarizes.
There were other important premises. It was necessary to promote the cultivation of the plant at the same time it occurs in nature, taking advantage of the rains and the milder temperatures of the Amazon winter, thus minimizing the possibility of differences in the smell and chemical composition of pataqueira, which, if it occurred, could jeopardize the entire project.
With all these factors considered, the initial step was to find families interested in sharing the challenge with Natura. The first community to be approached was Boa Vista, in Acará – around Belém, which already had a partnership with the company in supplying Priprioca and Capitiú, two Ekos assets. Of the 35 families that make up the community, seventeen agreed to participate in the project and help develop a new planting technique for pataqueira.
The union of local knowledge and agronomy techniques bore fruit. Tests were conducted in the form of irrigated horticulture beds, far from the igarapés. “We carried out different types of simultaneous cultivation, some proposed by me and others by the community, until a joint planting system was defined. It was a collective management of the entire process, and through trial and error, pathways emerged until we succeeded,” recalls the engineer.
With the system in hand, Daniel set out to find more people to help with production. “We realized that the families who agreed to the project would not be able to handle all the volume we needed, and we also identified that, initially, our partners had a more extractivist profile and less of a farmer; we needed reinforcement in our production,” he says.
The second community contacted was Campo Limpo, also around Belém, in Santo Antônio do Tauá, formed by farmers accustomed to producing various types of vegetables, already partners of Natura in the production of priprioca, estoraque, and capitiú. By this time, the new planting system was defined; it was just a matter of refining and guiding the cultivation. This time, twelve of the forty families in the community were interested in participating. They were guided on the type of fertilizer that should be used to achieve the best results, the amount of water, how to prepare the soil, and all the information that the research from the first stage of work had made available.
The dedication of the technicians and farmers paid off, and the 16 tons were achieved, with chemical composition and olfactory characteristics identical to the originals, enabling the launch of new products from Natura's lines, including new offerings in 2016. “We did it. We delivered to Natura's perfumery an exclusive essential oil, natural from Brazil, produced in an agroecological and organic system,” celebrates Daniel.
A new asset for Natura, a new opportunity for the communities
With the success of the pataqueira supply chain development project, the essential oil of the plant became one of Natura's assets, available, including, for future product lines. The local communities also became more involved with the project, and currently, all families from Campo Limpo and Boa Vista are engaged in planting pataqueira.
“We maintained technical assistance within the communities to guide the planting for families who still had doubts about the process and to ensure the quality of the entire chain,” explains Daniel.
The work of developing the planting system allowed for significant gains, in addition to an efficient production system that later attracted 100% of the families from the two partner communities, reducing the cultivation time from six to three months, and increasing the yield in the extraction of essential oil by 60%.
Today, pataqueira, which once lived only in the igarapés, is part of the daily lives of the farmers in the communities, gaining new contours of tradition. “One of the communities has a group of women who sing and dance carimbó, a musical rhythm typical of the State of Pará. The plant has gained lyrics and music and is present in the parties and performances of the group. It’s beautiful to see,” highlights the engineer.
See: Good Practices Manual for Pataqueira Production from naturacampus
Learn more!
Discover another collaborative project from Natura that optimized the drying process of Murumuru.
