Odebrecht Foundation signs unprecedented innovation partnership

With the purpose of contributing to the sustainable development of the rural area of Bahia’s Southern Lowlands, the Odebrecht Foundation signed an unprecedented partnership with Ocyan, an Odebrecht Group company, to participate in the Ocyan Waves, an open innovation initiative, that aims at to approach the startups ecosystem, in the search for solutions to improve processes. With the support of Innoscience, a corporate innovation consulting company, we will seek startups that can improve, through technology, the production management of the Rural Producers’ Cooperative of Presidente Tancredo Neves (Coopatan), the Foundation’s partner in carrying out the PDCIS.

Ocyan Waves is an innovation platform launched in 2019 and recognized by several national awards in the industry that contributes to business growth and development, solving challenges in an efficient and innovative manner. According to Nir Lander, in charge for the Personnel, Communication, Technology and Administration at Ocyan and member of the Odebrecht Foundation Board of Trustees, this platform can bring even more value to PDCIS. “Considering that we have a structured program of open innovation, we see opportunities that can add value to PDCIS through technology applied to the challenges faced by young people in the field, seeking to optimize processes, reduce costs, professionalize management and attract new partners who believe in the cause,” he says.

For Fabio Wanderley, Odebrecht Foundation superintendent, the unprecedented partnership focused on innovation with Ocyan’s support reinforces the institution’s strategy of promoting sustainable territorial development based on integrated and synergetic action fronts, as innovation and technology applied to the rural area. “Being on this project alongside Ocyan, our partner inside the Odebrecht Group, is very relevant. From technology, we understand that it is possible to optimize the way PDCIS institutions work, like Coopatan. With this, we gain strength with our business partners and we can achieve more impacting results for the rural producers who work with the cooperative”, he explains.

Fabiano Souza, responsible for Ocyan Waves at Ocyan, stresses that it has been a great time to share experiences with the Foundation and support it in its innovation journey. “More than ever, innovation and technology are the way to lead organizations into this new connected and integrated future. The connection with the startups ecosystem is a way to innovate, solving the organization’s troubles, adding technology, increasing productivity, reducing costs and consequently increasing its efficiency,” comments Souza.

With its completion scheduled to December 2020, the innovation project will directly impact more than 300 family farmers associated with the cooperative and their families. For Coopatan, seeking new processes means “intensifying support for crop planning, Shipment control to the cooperative, tracking and consequently better marketing conditions”, points out Juscelino Macedo, Coopatan’s President.

For 20 years, the cooperative based in the Bahia city of Presidente Tancredo Neves, in the rural area of Bahia’s Southern Lowlands, has been promoting economic development for hundreds of farmers. With good results achieved – only in the first semester, more than 330 tons of food were produced and the institution registered a turnover of more than R$ 9 million -, Coopatan shows that the cooperative model can work when there is the members’ commitment  and the necessary conditions for agricultural production.