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The origins of the Nossa Fruits project with founder Damien Binois.
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Damien, I'm 35, from Sarthe, and I founded Nossa Fruits in 2012. I'm passionate about food and nature, especially tropical forests.
How did the Nossa project begin?
While studying in Brazil, I discovered acai, a small Amazonian berry with an original taste and many nutritional properties. I'd never heard of this fruit before, but in Brazil it's very popular.
What really caught my attention about this little fruit was the fact that almost all of its production comes from wild harvesting in the Amazon. As I'm passionate about both food and the forest, I wanted to find out more and decided to do my Master's thesis on the how this fruit is produced.
That's what led me to Belém, in the Amazon delta, where I spent a few weeks, meeting pickers, cooperatives, NGOs, researchers and companies. I fell in love with this region where nature is exuberant but threatened, and where the inhabitants are extremely friendly but often live in great poverty.
I realized that acai, because it is an Amazonian plant, and because it contains impressive benefits, could help solve these 2 problems of the region: preserving the forest by giving it value, and bringing resources to the people who live there.
So I decided to try introducing it to the French people and to develop a sustainable production chain.
Why are you so committed to protecting the environment in your own way?
My grandparents were small-scale farmers, so I was exposed at a very early age to the challenges associated with food production and the related environmental issues. I grew up in the countryside, surrounded by forests, and my mother was a physics teacher who was very involved in sustainable development. So, from a very young age, I was taught the importance of reducing waste, recycling, composting, etc. Plus, most of the fruits and vegetables we ate came from our own garden. So the environment is a subject particularly close to my heart.
Then, like many young people my age, I want to contribute to a better world and have the greatest possible impact to improve it. Entrepreneurship seemed to me like the best path, to show consumers that their purchases have a real impact on the world, and to take action without relying on government institutions.
Two sentences to define this adventure?
The destruction of the Amazon rainforest is rooted in purely economic fundamentals: it's only by giving the forest real value that we'll be able to preserve it.
The French consumer, whose social and environmental awareness is far more developed than that of the Brazilian consumer, can help preserve the Amazon by choosing products from its socio-biodiversity.
What does the future hold for you? Any future projects?
2023 is a new turning point for Nossa, as we are in the process of structuring our CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) team in Brazil.
This has 2 main goals : Firstly, to ensure that our work in the Amazon does not create social or environmental problems, in particular, by monitoring the use of protective equipment during harvesting, preserving biodiversity and preventing deforestation. We aim to go even further than the organic and fair trade certification standards we already hold.
Secondly, we aim to measure the positiveimpact we generate for traditional Amazonian communities and ecosystems: increased income for harvesters, greater involvement of women, and enhanced biodiversity across growing areas.
In 2024, we will beginconstruction of our production site in the Amazon, which will create numerous local jobs.
Finally, what advice would you give to anyone else who wants to get involved in a project of this kind (whether it's an association or a business)?
For me, entrepreneurship is above all a question of self-confidence. It's this confidence that tells us that we can change the world on our own small scale, and that makes us accept the risks inherent in such an adventure.
If you work on your self-confidence and have a meaningful idea, go for it. In the worst case scenario, you'll have learned a lot and met some incredible people!
Thanks to Basilic Podcast
