TOBASA - BABASSU

The Babassu

The babassu coconut is native of a palm from north Brazil, that occupies large tracts of land with forest cover, being a renewable resource that has huge energy potential and chemical products generation. In addition to the agroforestry indicators, babassu presents high ecological, social and political importance as an extractive product, involving an infinity of extractivist families in the states of Tocantins, Maranhão and Piauí.

Its social importance is even greater considering that the exploitation of the product happens in the off season of the main regional cultures. In addition, babassu plays a fundamental role in the maintenance of soil fertility – essential for the sustainability of agricultural systems.

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It is worth to consider that the full industrialization of the babassu coconut in Brazil, as a strategic tool, matches the modern world concept of biodiversity conservation. It has real and immediate consequences for the country macroeconomic context of its self-sustainable bioenergetic matrix. This bioindustrial activity is performed in large scale by TOBASA BIOINDUSTRIAL.

Full industrialization of the

babassu coconut

Almonds

Endocarp

Mesocarp

Epicarp

Occurrence of

babassu

The main growing area of the babassu palm (Orbignya phalerata) is in the bordering transition bands of the equatorial broadleaf forest. Its major presence is in the states of Tocantins, Maranhão and Piauí, the forest account for millions of hectares of Brazilian land, and is considered the largest native oliferous forest in the world.

The natural forests of babassu are easily identified in the landscape. They are located in humid soils, and often, in most cases, in the valleys, forming large discontinuous spots of palm trees.

This palm reaches 20 meters in height and produces from 2 to 6 bunches of coconut per year, within which the almonds are found. Its agricultural productivity stands at about 2 tons of coconut per hectare/year, reaching an expressive longevity of up to 100 years.