Notice 1

The 9th Journalists Meeting promoted by Banco do Brazil Foundation was held on August 28th 2015 in the city of Brasilia. During the meeting, journalists attended the presentation of each case and asked questions to the representatives of the institutions.

 Antonio Leopoldino Dantas, Sitonho, beekeeper and president of Casa Apis, introduced Casa Apis’s project. Created in 2005, and based in Picos, state of Piaui, Casa Apis - Central de Cooperativas Apicolas do Semi-Arido Brasileiro is a central cooperative that brings together five beekeepers cooperatives distributed in 41 municipalities, with 52 communities and 850 beekeepers. The central cooperative offers a modern honey processing plant with capacity of 2000 tons per year. As part of production infrastructure Casa Apis also offers 36 extraction facilities, transportation, laboratory, 42000 beehives and technical support to producers. The honey produced by Casa Apis is exported to the United States, Germany and Canada.

The questions from the journalists focused on the organization of the cooperative, supply chain of honey, domestic market and export economy. "Honey is the third export product of Piauí second only to soybeans. The difference is that soy concentrates and beekeeping distributes the resources and profits among over 10000 producers, "said Sitonho. "Before, the middleman made most of the money with exports. The Brazil honey production jumped in the last 5 years. Brazilian honey is recognized worldwide for its quality and the various certifications obtained during several years can prove it, "he said.

Natanael, president of Coompai, one of the cooperatives that integrates Casa Apis, reported that he started beekeeping by helping his father, one of the founding partners of that cooperative. "Today I am president of a cooperative involving 54 active producers". He pointed out that, with the cooperative work, there was a big increase in production and quality of life of producers. "Nowadays we have electricity in the country and beekeepers can buy equipment such as refrigerators or motorbikes".