As a purpose-driven company, Ejido Verde’s regenerative agroforestry model provides environmentally beneficial solutions, as well as creating transformative wealth for rural and indigenous, autonomous, land-owning communities (known as ejidos). We do this by creating a high-quality, consistent oleoresin supply for our guaranteed buyers.

The model is not only ensuring a more reliable supply of pine resin, but it might lead to rethinking how equity is distributed along a supply chain. In a traditional supply chain, source producers earn pennies on every dollar of exported goods. “Fair Trade” is a global standard that assures premium 10% for producer communities— meaningful, but too often not enough. Ejido Verde is a dramatically different model that ensures 90% of the wealth creation is captured by low-income forest community producers.

This non-exploitative economic relationship sets new standards by directly partnering with rural and indigenous tapping communities where Ejido Verde’s business model relies on four pillars:

Commercial Agroforestry Plantation

Ejido Verde’s adaptive reforestation model is designed to maximize long-term resin yields without harming the trees, while improving forest genetics, soil health, watershed restoration and expanding wildlife habitat.

Community Lending

Ejido Verde provides zero-interest loans of $4,800 USD per hectare to communities matched by communities providing eligible land and labor. The loans provide for superior seedlings, technical assistance, land-use maintenance, and pays for local workers to establish and maintain the plantations.

Community Building

Empowering indigenous communities is a key component of the Ejido Verde business model. By forging reciprocal community relationships, Ejido Verde builds strong community partnerships. Ejido Verde provides training to build and strengthen local governance ensuring effective stewardship of healthy forests and intergenerational wealth sharing.

Guaranteed Demand

The global market outlook for pine resin remains strong. With a decline in crude resin output, The Pinosa Group is currently only operating at 30% capacity. Ejido Verde guarantees a consistent, high-quality supply of crude resin for the Pinosa Group, allowing them to reach full capacity and fill their existing demand. The contracts are for 30 years affording producers a fair market price while industry partners compensate Ejido Verde with a 12% commission for providing access to raw materials not otherwise available.

Overall, the model works like this: Ejido Verde makes a loan to an entire community. The community assigns land rights and responsibilities to individual families. The loans provide funding for the families to plant and care for the trees. When the trees start producing resin at year 10, resin tappers sanctioned by the community repay the loan with 10% of the resin. Ejido Verde buys the other 90% at a fair market price — the communities receive 90% of the revenue from selling its resin from year 11 to 20 and thereafter receive revenue from 100% of resin harvested.

Ejido Verde also aims to influence the global pine chemical industry, which includes 800,000 tappers, to adopt more sustainable business practices over the next 20 years. This begins by demonstrating commercial success of investing in a stable integrated supply chain, in contrast to dominant industry practices that rely on volatile commodity markets, often called “spot markets” to satisfy “just in time” inventory requirements, a practice intended to minimize inventories and holding costs.