CONCRAB - Confederation of the Brazilian Agrarian Reform Cooperatives
‘The SCA, or Cooperativist System of Settlements, is ... the sector that deals with topics of production, commerce, agroindustrial technology, rural credit, and base organization. This sector arose in 1990 to stimulate all forms of agricultural cooperation within the settlements, including also the individual settlers. On May 15, 1992, in an historic assembly with representatives of Cooperatives from ten states, CONCRAB was founded, in Curitiba, Paraná. Its main functions were: a) articulate and coordinate general policy along with medium and long-range planning, the development of agricultural stock-raising of the State Cooperatives and the Cooperatives of the Settlements; b) organize Technical Schools to supply the technical needs of the Cooperatives in the areas of administration, financing, and agronomy; c) maintain a department of strategic studies for larger scale projects: to study the market and the possibility of setting up agro-industries; d) make viable export and import activities; e) represent the interests of the cooperatives before public and international organizations; f) associate with other cooperative agricultural associations and the like’ (Calendário Histórico dos Trabalhadores. São Paulo: MST, Setor de Educação. 3a. edição, 1999, p. 45).