The Cooperative COOPERATIVE, in Abaetetuba (PA), brings together 104 people and has been supplying inputs to Natura for twenty years. At first, the community sold only fruits and seeds, until, in 2010, it opened two agribusiness with company investments to turn materials into oils and butters. Income increased: while a tree over 20 years old yielded about $ 30 in wood, the members receive from $ 50 to $ 60 per tree with each crop with the production of Murumuru, Andiroba, Ucuuba and Acai. The cooperative produces daily between 800 and a thousand kilos of butters, oils and pulp, ingredients that already make up dozens of brand products.
Earlier this month, Natura announced that it already has more than a thousand products that depend on inputs from the Amazon, the equivalent of more than half of the company’s portfolio. The massive use of these materials, however, brings challenges especially in the face of climate change, which make the crops unpredictable, as well as issues linked to the scale of production. This year, the company also announced the goal of becoming regenerative by 2050, which depends on developing technologies.
Currently, Natura buys 46 Amazonian ingredients, such as nuts, Ingá, Pataqueira and Babaçu, used in lines such as Chronos, Lumina, Una and Natura Ekos. The company maintains partnerships with 52 producing communities, which bring together 12,000 families. 30,000 tons of Amazonian bioinsums are purchased annually.
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More ingredients
Cofruta was born in 2002 and initially tried to produce sweets and jams. Shortly thereafter, the cooperative met a Natura representative, who sought communities who worked with Murumuru:
“There was Murumuru, but we were unaware of working with him. We started talking, sending a little product to do research. Then we started producing Murumuru,” says Vanildo Quaresma Ferreira, president of the cooperative. “One of our desires was to have more ingredients because acai only has four months of production.”
When there is a need for a new input, Natura goes to partner communities in search of potential raw materials. Then it starts a search process of 3 to 5 years to prove if the product meets the desired function. It was the same process that happened with the Association of Rural Producers of the Campo Limpo community (Aprocamp).
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The president, Josilene Monteiro Seixas, says that the partnership, which began in 2002, increased by 70% the income of around 400 people in the community. Since 2021, Aprocamp has been having an oil processing factory. Now, two residents take a technical course in chemistry so that a portion of the analysis can soon be carried out within the community.
The work is thorough: a ton of plant yields, on average, only 160 ml of oil, and the extraction process can take two to six hours, depending on the plant. Last year alone, Aprocamp traded 35,000 liters of patoqueira oil, for example.
“Sociobioeconomics has given us a range of opportunity and technology to add value to traditional knowledge, here in the community. And most importantly: technology brought voice. Look, if you don’t live in the Amazon, you won’t talk about our reality,” says Josilene.
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Plano 2050
Natura’s construction of relationships with local communities over decades has paved the way for the Visão 2050 program, recently announced by the company. The set of guidelines expands commitments already made by the brand. The goal is to become regenerative, that is, a company that not only returns to nature what it uses in its products, but contributes to restoring ecosystems, overcoming what has been consumed.
To become a totally regenerative until 2050, Natura needs to have a positive impact on four fronts: financial, human, social and environmental. The only front that is not yet totally positive is environmental, as the business still has impacts on nature.
Angela Pinhati, Natura Sustainability Director, explains that this approach is also a way to unlock the company’s growth because, by expanding its activities, Natura would not harm the environment, which it depends to extract inputs.
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Despite plans, she recognizes that many of the company’s goals still depend on technologies that do not exist, such as having all renewable and 100% composite source packaging:
“How do we find plastic materials alternatives? We don’t have good solutions. This is an example of the way we put it to what the R&D staff start researching new packaging alternatives to minimize damage,” he says.
There are still other challenges, such as the impact of climate change on production. Whenever a plant or seed has reduced crop, the amount of products manufactured also decreases. Raoni Silva, Relationship and Supply Manager of Sociobiodiversity, says problems such as longer, short, late or anticipated harvests are already common:
“The Brazil nut had a crop of 70%. The years 2022 and 2023 had low incidence of rain, which impacted the crop of 2025. And this changes the plant cycle. Often, when the plant is small fruit and the drought is intense, the survival strategy of the plant is to abort the fruit,” Silva explained.
To face this problem, the company has sought to understand the difference of the crop in different regions, expand the number of communities and families involved in the chain and encourage the regeneration of areas, with agroforestry systems or insertion of plants to regain management areas.
Another focus is to foster partnerships with companies interested in having more sustainable businesses, says Paulo Dallari, Natura Reputation and Government Director, including during COP 30, seeking new uses of bioinsums, beyond the cosmetic industry.
“How to develop new ingredients or new uses for those who already exist? We find, for example, that tucumã helps the skin produce hyaluronic acid. You don’t have to do synthetic. If we were not looking at Tucumã and looking for uses for it, that knowledge would be hidden.”
It brings another example:
“The white pitch (an aromatic resin used in Natura perfumes) is used by communities to insulate the bottom of the boat, when you join the wooden boards. Could it not replace the varnish, for example? It could not work for the chemical industry? No one is looking at it, but how many possibilities do not come from the same tree, which today we are using because of the aroma.”
This work also involves attracting more companies to EcoParque da Natura, a cosmetics research center located in Benevides (PA), with a factory that produces 1.6 million bar soaps daily. Natura’s idea is to build a business ecosystem that helps climb sustainability solutions.
