small businesses between crises and migration successes

In the midst of variations in the price of iron ore on the international market, the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and projects to protect the ecosystems of the Amazon, North region Brazil is the scene of intense migratory flows that generate peaks, sometimes of crisis, sometimes of bliss. But microenterprises in the region are managing to take advantage of favorable situations to increase the level of employment and contribute to a more sustainable growth in the region.

An exclusive survey carried out by People’s Gazette based on the Annual List of Social Information (Rais) of municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, it shows the municipalities that created more vacancies with a formal contract in micro-enterprises – commercial or service establishments with up to nine employees or industries with up to 19 employees. and the series “Where to undertake has time”published over the course of this week, shows the good practices implemented in locations that managed to leverage employment.

In the North Region, the subject of this article, entrepreneurship found advantages and obstacles to prosper in areas of population boom. Boa Vista, for example, was the Brazilian capital that grew the most in the last decade. Its population increased from 290.7 thousand to 436.5 thousand between 2011 and 2021, a growth of 50%, much higher than the average of capitals (11%), according to IBGE projections. The number of job vacancies in micro companies increased from 8,354 to 11,824 in the same period, an increase of 41.5%, according to Rais data.

Population growth was mainly due to the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, which caused one of the largest international migrations in recent history and affected Roraima from 2015 onwards.

“To deal with this crisis, we received a large amount of financial resources to guarantee public safety, hospital care and education. This was added to the values ​​that the state received from the Union for being an old territory, which contributed to the emergence of many activities in the last decade. Furthermore, studies show that where there is immigrant labor, entrepreneurship is awakened”, explains economist Meire Joisy Almeida Pereira, professor at the Federal University of Roraima (UFRR).

Meire points out that the state and the North Region as a whole are made up of immigrants, but the scenario has changed in recent years. “As it is a border state, we have a large volume of military personnel here. People have historically come and gone from Boa Vista. But, due to the quality of life that started to gain strength, people started to settle here”. Another point is that mass migration brought younger people to the state, who leave for entrepreneurship when they cannot find job openings.

Boa Vista has very different characteristics from other capitals. The economist, who works with micro-business consulting and holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences and Sustainability in the Amazon, cited data showing that 99.58% of the state’s companies are in Boa Vista, and that of these, 99% are micro and small businesses. port.

Where employment in microenterprises grew the most in the North (cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants; source: Rais/MTE and IBGE)

Iron extraction in Pará attracts investments

In the north of Pará is the third largest exporting city in Brazil. Parauapebas, with the iron ore extracted from Vale, moved US$ 87 billion between 2011 and 2021, equivalent to 6% of all export revenues in the country, according to the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services. In the same period, the number of employees in microenterprises in the municipality increased from 3,960 to 6,633, an increase of 68%.

“We’re in a mining town here and that’s why there are big consumption bubbles. The per capita income is above average, both regionally and nationally, and population growth is also out of the ordinary. In 1990 there were 53,000 inhabitants, forecasts from the new Census indicate something around 270,000”, says João Paulo Borges de Loureiro, professor at the Federal Rural University of the Amazon (UFRA) and coordinator of the Mining and Sustainability Project in Carajás (Misuc).

“There are 270,000 people who need to eat, dress, move around, need a series of services related to health and education. The city has become a major center for immigration and the opening of new companies, and most are small or of microentrepreneurs”, says Loureiro.

The Financial Compensation for Mineral Exploitation (Cefen) paid to the municipality of Parauapebas, equivalent to 60% of the resources extracted by the mining companies, helps the municipal administration to handle the necessary investments to serve the population, and this generates more people wanting to undertake and invest. One of the problems, points out Loureiro, is that iron ore is a commodity subject to fluctuations in international prices, and price drops are very harmful to the municipality.

Another concern is that iron extraction is finite. “If we don’t prepare ourselves to have a more solid economy, we will have to think seriously about what to do with the 300,000 people who live in a city in the middle of the Amazon rainforest”, he points out.

For this reason, he says, local leaders are mobilized to diversify economic activity with tourist options and the sustainable use of natural, non-timber products. Loureiro cites the need for investment in research and higher education, as neighboring Canaã dos Carajás is doing, to expand training, work and knowledge dissemination options.

Tefé, in the Amazon, grows based on handling one of the largest fish in the world

Located on the banks of a tributary of the Amazon River, the 264-year-old city of Tefé (AM) has always had an economy linked to fishing and plant extraction. But in recent decades, the joint work of NGOs, public authorities and Sebrae with micro-entrepreneurs has promoted sustainable practices that have given new dynamism to the entire surrounding region and help to overcome logistical obstacles, such as lack of transport, roads or even telephony and internet.

“As long as the person has Pronaf documents [Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar], producer or fisherman’s license, we treat like an entrepreneur. Our family farming is on a small scale, as distances make the product more expensive, there is difficulty with communication, transport is done by boat. The important thing is to help to add value”, explains Sebrae Amazonas technical analyst José Antônio Cardoso Fonseca.

An important tool for this is the Geographical Indication (GI) seal, granted by the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) to products that have a particular quality resulting from natural resources or specific know-how.

Tefé is home to the Federation of Pirarucu Manipulators from Mamirauá, which in 2021 received the IG seal. Native to the Amazon, the pirarucu is one of the largest freshwater fish on the planet.

“Science has proven that an ancestral management technique is efficient in preserving the species. Respecting the cycle, the fishermen take care of the pirarucu and the lake, the banks, and this ends up preserving the chain ecosystem. This is the result of great care, the effort of many institutions. Fishermen become vigilant that the rules are enforced. This is important for product quality and sustainability,” says Fonseca.

64 kilometers away is the small municipality of Uarini, with 13,800 inhabitants, which also won an IG seal for the local flour of the same name. The development of small towns in this region has benefited Tefé, which has 59,000 inhabitants and receives an influx of residents from nearby towns, who arrive on boats to use the airport and seek assistance from public services, such as INSS and Federal Police agencies. The movement and formalization of companies helped to increase the number of vacancies in micro companies in the municipality, which increased from 532 to 888 between 2011 and 2021, a growth of 67%.

The growth of the city where she was born favored the plans of businesswoman Elaine Costa, 27, who in 2021 opened a dance school in Tefé. As a child, she always wanted to learn to dance, but there was no such option in the city. She nurtured the dream until she moved to Manaus, where she studied Dance and other professional courses. At age 20, she opened a studio in partnership in the capital of Amazonas.

“The pandemic came and everything closed. I saw the opportunity to start over. As I always wanted to come back here, it was the chance I had to open the first school in the city”, says Elaine. For the time being, the space has other assistant teachers on an internship basis and an employee. “My father opened a business here even before I was born, so I looked up to him a lot to undertake. But the school is only two years old, I am still in the process of discovering the challenges”, she shares.

According to Elaine, Tefé is full of opportunities. “It is a city that is growing a lot and here is a hub for neighboring cities. Logistics are complicated, there are no roads. We are in the middle of the jungle and the river. But at the same time, we consume everything that is from here, so trade rotates a lot and one buys from the other, money circulates around here”, she summarizes. A recent business in the city is the rental of floating houses for tourism, for the attraction of bathing in the Tefé River in the middle of the forest.

This is the fourth article in the series “Where to undertake has timewhich shows good practices in municipalities where employment in microenterprises has grown the most in the last decade.