Kawá
Kawá is a financing ecosystem that connects cocoa smallholder farmers working in agroforestry systems to credit, combined with high-quality technical assistance and rural extension.
The initiative strengthens family farming, boosts regenerative systems that keep the forest standing, and promotes prosperity in producing regions.
The name recalls the origin of cocoa in pre-Columbian civilizations (kakawa), reinforcing the connection between culture, territory, and forest.
A new model for family agriculture
Structured as a Fiagro (Agribusiness Production Chains Investment Fund), Kawá operates under a blended finance model that combines private, concessional, and philanthropic capital to unlock investments at scale with positive socio-environmental impact
the challenge
addressed
85% of producers
are outside the financial system
75% have never received
technical assistance and rural extension
Smallholdings account for approximately
80% of national production
Launched in the country’s two main producing regions Bahia (Atlantic Forest) and Pará (Amazon), with an initial target to:
Mobilize
R$30 million
in credit in the initial phase
Reach approximately
1,200 farming families
benefited
Promote access to high-quality technical assistance
Monitor data and optimize operations to ensure transparency and scalability
Ambition
Kawá was created to transform access to rural financing in the cocoa sector and to strengthen regenerative systems at scale, with a long-term vision to:
Mobilize up to R$ 1 billion in resources
Benefit more than 10,000 farming families
Expand services: credit for restoration, public financing lines, and access to premium markets
Ecosystem of involved institutions
Concept development and structuring
- Instituto Arapyaú
- Tabôa Fortalecimento Comunitário
- Violet
- MOV Investimentos
Fund administration
- VERT
Technical assistance and rural extension
- Fundação Solidaridad (Pará)
- Ciapra (Lower South of Bahia)
- Polímatas (Extreme South of Bahia) in partnership with Suzano
- Tabôa (Southern Coast of Bahia)
Production chain and market
- AIPC – National Association of Cocoa Processing Industries