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This October 8, the Hydro Sustainability Fund (FSH) and the Mitsui Bussan Foundation in Brazil inaugurated a unit for processing family farming products in Barcarena, within the Tipitix - Community Agrifood Entrepreneurship project. The processing unit aims to increase the quality and added value of local community-based agrifood production, allowing it to reach different markets and consumers.

Started in March of this year, the Tipitix project offers, in addition to space for processing family farm products, marketing and marketing strategies, facilitating access for producers to small commercial establishments in the region, operators of industrial restaurants in Barcarena and startups in innovation in the agrifood chain. The project lasts 12 months and, in its first year, will serve around 200 family producers of cassava and derivatives, fruits, vegetables, vegetables and various other products from more than 20 rural communities. The initiative represents an investment of R$1.5 million. The Peabiru Institute is the implementing partner of the Tipitix project and is responsible for the initial administration of the processing unit until a local group is strengthened for its management in the future.

“The Hydro Sustainability Fund is a committed partner with the territories where it operates, listening to the communities about the challenges and working to make sustainable solutions viable. Through this partnership with the Mitsui Bussan Foundation in Brazil, we are contributing to the generation of value and creation of new businesses linked to community-based agrifood value chains, improving their organization, production and marketing. We are committed to long-term investment in knowledge, dialogue and technical training to boost the diversity of sustainable projects in Barcarena, an important territory for the Company in Brazil”, says Eduardo Figueiredo, executive director of the Hydro Sustainability Fund.

“The Mitsui Bussan do Brasil Foundation aims to return to Brazilian society the opportunities that were given to Mitsui & Co to enable the countless businesses we have carried out in Brazil for over 70 years, supporting the country's socioeconomic development. For us, this partnership with HSF is fully aligned with the purpose of the Mitsui Bussan do Brasil Foundation, positively impacting the socioeconomic development of Barcarena. We believe that professional training and financial support are essential for the human development of the most needy and we are very happy to be able to support this cause together with the FSH”, adds Masahiro Mizuhashi, President of the Mitsui Bussan Foundation in Brazil.

“Projects like this one seek to add value to products developed by family farming. We are aware of the great importance of a project like this, which brings new practices to our farmer. The economic investment and training will generate income and employment and improve the quality of life for the farmer. It is entrepreneurship that comes to these people, a new way of doing quality family farming. The importance of such a project is great. Congratulations on the investment that is being made. Public-private partnership is extremely important to us. It achieves so much more when we work together. So we are going to reach our target audience in an extraordinary way. We need to be united so that this can be transformative, and that in the end we reach our goal”, said the deputy mayor of Barcarena, Cristina Vilaça.

“If we are able to unify actions, which take advantage of private initiative resources, the effort of public management and the articulation of civil society, we will manage to have consistency. The construction of CEDAB was the result of a social project. It was an articulation of the company, city hall and the State Government. It had a committee where civil society was represented with its associations, discussing the stages of this project. If it were not for this articulation, CEDAB would not exist. So I would like to say that the cooperative is a partner in this project and in local development. We want to contribute with this articulation to join our production organization and help with this project”, said Nilson Azevedo, president of the Agricultural Extraction and Development Cooperative of Barcarena (CEBAD).

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