Not so in the Bolivian Amazon near the town of Cobija. There, a company called Tahuamanu S.R.L. has parlayed an invention for automating the separation of Brazil nuts from their bone-hard shells into a thriving, sustainable business and a major source of employment.

Tahuamanu began production four years ago. Since then, with the help of a loan and equity investment from the IDB's Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), it has captured 10 percent of the world's Brazil nut market. The company now employs nearly 300 people year round at its processing plant and provides seasonal employment for about 800 others who gather the nuts when they ripen and fall from the tall jungle trees during the rainy season.

Tahuamanu's Brazil nuts bring top dollar on the world market because they are top quality. Instead of cracking the shells by hand, which often results in damage, the company uses a combination of high-pressure steam, a mechanical cracker and vibration. Its quality control lab certifies that the nuts are free of contamination, and the company has earned the "organic" label from the United States Organic Crop Improvement Association.

As the demand for Brazil nuts grows, intermediaries are paying the nut gatherers four times more than they used to get, according to Enrique Nelkenbaum, Tahuamanu's general manager. Nut collectors now average $1,200 per season, he says.

The booming business is also bringing important secondary benefits to the local people. Before, truckers hauling merchandise to Cobija charged retailers double the transportation costs because they had to return empty to La Paz. But now, according to Rolando Apanza, Tahuamanu's administrative and financial manager, truckers know they'll have Brazil nuts to take back--13 to 14 loads a month--so they charge normal rates. So Cobija's consumers now find a greater selection of goods in local shops at lower prices. "We're getting products that we never had before, like fresh vegetables," says Apanza.

Although Cobija is only about 615 km north of Bolivia's capital, La Paz, by air, it still takes nearly four days to make the 1,300-km trip by land in the dry season and up to two months during the rainy season, when rivers swell. Several years ago, a truck ended up in a river soon after leaving Cobija for La Paz and lost its entire load of Brazil nuts. "The driver returned to Cobija in tears," remembers Apanza. "He had no insurance and nobody to help him, and it was the first time he had come here. We helped him get his truck out of the river. After we washed the truck's motor it worked, and he left with another load of nuts."

Even with automated shelling, collecting and processing Brazil nuts is a labor intensive operation. Gatherers spend more than half of their time carrying heavy loads of nuts by foot--one 30-kilo sack at a time--through the jungle to collection points, says Tahuamanu's Nelkenbaum. In the process, they can lose a third of their nuts to rot.

Drop-off points for collectors can be up to 170 km from Cobija, and the trip to the processing plant can take several days. Trucks carry chain saws to cut apart the huge trunks that often block their way. Only an estimated 10 percent of Brazil nuts produced in the forests actually reach markets. Due to these difficulties, world sales of Brazil nuts have been stagnant since 1992. Moreover, burning in the Amazon forest has reduced the number of Brazil nut trees. "Deforestation has really cut into the Brazil nut tree population," says Scott Mori of The New York Botanical Gardens. He adds that there is evidence that the smoke is reducing the population of pollinating bees.

But increased demand from United States and European candy and nut companies has driven export prices up from a low of about $0.95 cents a pound for shelled medium Brazil nut kernels in 1992 to more than $1.70 in 1997, according to the trade publication Edible Nut Market Report.

Brazil nuts are not grown in plantations because they need the natural forest's pollinating insects to produce a large number of nuts. The trees, which number from three to six per hectare, are found in the rain forests of Bolivia, Brazil and Per™.