Fair trade at INARA

INARA uses 100% organic ingredients in its bath and body care products and the star ingredient is richly exotic and extremely hydrating Babassu oil, captured from the fruit kernel of the Babassu palm tree in Maranhão Brazil.

For centuries the people of Maranhão have used the Babassu for it's moisturizing properties. They also turn the shell into charcoal and make a flour, used for cooking as well as for remedying gastritis and menstrual cramping. Extracting oil from the Babassu palm is part of an ancient ritual-today performed by over 400,000 families-that helps bring the women together while connecting them to the land surrounding them. Essentially for these women Babassu isn't simply a tree, a fruit or an oil-it's a way of life.

However their traditions were almost destroyed when developers wanted to wipe out the palms in order to plant grass for livestock. The women rallied to create Free Babassu and together have been able to preserve the palm. During this time two main cooperatives were formed to help harvest and produce the Babassu.

AMTR (The Women's Association of Rural Workers of Lago do Junco/Lago dos Rodrigues) protects the Babassu palm while raising incomes, building schools and providing desperately needed health care services. These include everything from building medical facilities to constructing simple, but necessary, bathroom facilities. They built a soap factory to craft and sell soap, allowing the women working there to earn about double the Brazilian national wage. The other co-op is COOPALJ (The Cooperative of Small Producing Farmers and "Agro-extractors" in Lago do Junco. All of the members participate in harvesting the Babassu and are able to provide a far better price for the oil by eliminating the 'middle men.'

INARA understands the importance of the indigenous women's cooperatives power to combine an essential ancient ritual with modern commerce and production through fair trade. INARA founder Anne Dolbeau truly believes in both the amazing hydrating property of the Babassu oil and participates in the fair trade practices to procure this precious ingredient. By purchasing one of INARA's Babassu-based body care products, you'll be supporting and empowering a very large group of strong, dedicated and determined women.