Brazil

Responding to challenges and existing knowledge gaps facing the cooperative movement, this mapping research seeks to provide exhaustive information on cooperatives around the world.

This is achieved through a process jointly conducted by the ICA and its four regional offices – Cooperatives of the Americas, Cooperatives Europe, ICA Africa, and ICA Asia-Pacific – using a common methodology, designed with the support of external experts from the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Euricse).

Each office collected the input of ICA members present in the countries within its geographic area, by using a common questionnaire, and completing it with relevant national statistics, in order to obtain a picture of the national situation. As a result, the data above is collected following two strategies: 1) a survey targeting ICA cooperative members 2) collecting national statistics already available in the country. The numbers above provide aggregated data from ICA members on the number of cooperatives, as well as the number of cooperative employees and memberships in the country. More methodological information is available in the full report. In Brazil, the data is collected for the reference year 2018.

Mapping out cooperatives in each country provides a more precise picture of the cooperative context at national and regional levels, enhances the movement's visibility, networking, partnerships opportunities, as well as advocacy, and empowers cooperators by providing tools for positive change.

This webpage presents a snapshot of the research results for Brazil. For more information and the full research results, you can download the report by clicking on the links above.

In Brazil, the culture of cooperation has been observed since the time of Portuguese colonization, stimulated by public officials, the military, liberal professionals, workers and European immigrants. Officially, the movement began in 1889, in Minas Gerais, with the founding of the Economic Cooperative of Public Employees of Ouro Preto, whose focus was the consumption of agricultural products. Later, other cooperatives appeared in Minas Gerais and also in the states of Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul.

The OCB website also mentions that in 1902, the Swiss priest Theodor Amstad founded the first credit union in Brazil: Sicredi Pioneira, which is still active today. Based in Nova Petrópolis (RS), the cooperative was the solution found by Amstad to improve the lives of the residents of the municipality, who until then had no bank. Starting in 1906, it was the turn of agricultural cooperatives, idealized by rural producers and immigrants, especially of German and Italian origin.

Brazil counts 7 ICA member organisations:

- Organización de Cooperativas de Brasil (OCB), is a full member and is the APEX organisation in Brazil.

- Confederación Nacional de Cooperativas Médicas (UNIMED), is a full member in the health sector.

- Central Nacional das Cooperativas Odontológicas (UNIODONTO do Brasil), is a full member in the health sector.

- Central de Cooperativas e Empreendimentos Solidários do Brasil (UNISOL do Brasil), is a full member and an intersectoral national organization.

- Central Nacional Unimed – Cooperativa Central (CNU), is a full member in the health sector.

- Seguros UNIMED, is a full member in the insurance sector.

- Cooperativa de Trabalho Médico de Ribeirão Preto (COMERP), is a full member and an intersectoral national organization.

- Cooperativa de Crédito de Livre Admissao de Associados Pioneira da Serra Gaucha - SICREDI Pioneira RS, is a full member in the finance sector.

In Brazil the research questionnaire was distributed to and completed by 3 ICA member organisations. The data collected was for the reference year 2018.