Brazil | October 22, 2026

Brazil offers fertile ground for research and innovation based on nature, with its leading economy in Latin America and the world’s largest tropical rainforest. For Switzerland’s innovation ecosystem, it offers opportunities to engage with Amazonia, learn from local knowledge, and build mutually beneficial and long-standing partnerships.

In line with this potential, Swiss researchers are building connections with Brazil, bringing together expertise from both countries to contribute to a more resilient future. One example is Susanne Miescher Schwenninger, Head of the Food Biotechnology Research Group at ZHAW (Food Biotechnology Research Group | ZHAW Institute of Food and Beverage Innovation ILGI), who travelled to Brazil last summer through the ZHAW Swissnex Staff Mobility Program to meet local experts in her field. Her research focuses on post-harvest cacao processing, particularly the role of fermentation in cacao quality and the development of more reproducible processes. As one of the world’s leading cacao producers, Brazil was a natural destination for her research.

We sat down with Susanne to discuss her experience with Swissnex and how engaging with local expertise and real-world conditions can shape scientific research.

What are you currently investigating? Why is this research relevant from a global perspective?

Our research focuses on the targeted use of microorganisms and their metabolic potential to transform food raw materials. We investigate how fermentation can reduce antinutritional factors, improve health-promoting factors, and create appealing flavours and textures. Another long-standing focus is cacao post-harvest processing, particularly the influence of fermentation on cacao quality and the development of more reproducible processes.

From a global perspective, this research addresses several interconnected challenges: the transition towards more sustainable food systems, the need for nutritious and attractive plant-based foods, the reduction of food losses and the creation of local value from regional resources.

What motivated you to choose Brazil for your research mobility program?

Brazil, and particularly the Amazon region, brings together extraordinary biodiversity, a rapidly developing bioeconomy and a wealth of knowledge about regional food resources and their processing. For someone working in food fermentation and plant-based raw materials, this offers enormous scientific and practical potential.

I was particularly interested in understanding how research institutions, entrepreneurs, producers and local communities approach the sustainable use of Amazonian resources. Cacao was the obvious point of connection with my own work, but I also wanted to look beyond individual raw materials and better understand the wider innovation ecosystem.

The ZHAW Swissnex Staff Mobility Program provided an ideal framework for this. It allowed me not only to visit institutions, but also to meet people, listen to their perspectives, and explore where Swiss and Brazilian expertise could genuinely complement each other.

How did your experiences in the Brazilian Amazon influence your perspective on the scientific and practical potential of these fields?

The journey reinforced my conviction that the potential of fermentation cannot be understood from a laboratory perspective alone. In the Amazon region, raw materials, microorganisms, traditional knowledge, environmental conditions, processing practices, and local food cultures are closely interconnected.

At Kakao Blumenn and Fazenda Iracema, I was able to follow cacao from cultivation within an agroforestry system through fermentation and on to chocolate production. On Combu Island, the work of Dona Nena and Mario Carvalho showed how locally grown cacao, traditional knowledge, entrepreneurship, and tourism can come together in a sustainable value chain.

Instead of relying only on established commercial starter cultures, we should also explore locally adapted microorganisms associated with Amazonian raw materials and traditional processes. However, this must be done through equitable collaboration that respects local expertise, ownership, biodiversity regulations, and benefit sharing.

The most promising solutions will emerge when scientific methods strengthen what already exists locally rather than replacing it.

You joined the nexBio Amazonia program as an observer for one week. What inspired you to participate, and what made the program unique from your perspective?

I was attracted by nexBio Amazonia because it brings together Swiss and Brazilian researchers and startups to work on concrete questions related to the Amazonian bioeconomy.

What made the programme unique was the way it connected different “biotopes” of innovation. Visits to Fundação Paulo Feitoza (FFP Tech), the Centro de Bionegócios da Amazônia (CBA), and the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) provided insights into research and technological development. Field-based initiatives and educational projects then showed how innovation is shaped by entrepreneurs, producers, communities, and local knowledge.

It showed the Amazon as a complex and dynamic region in which people are already developing knowledge, technologies, and business models.

How do you expect the knowledge, experiences, and connections you gained in Brazil to influence your future research, teaching, or potential collaborations?

The journey has already opened doors for new collaborations in Food Fermentation Science, particularly with researchers at the Federal University of Pará and other partners in northern Brazil. Potential areas include cacao fermentation, the valorisation of cacao and açaí side streams, plant-based food development and above all the exploration of locally adapted microbial cultures for food fermentation processes.

Any future project should create scientific value while also responding to local priorities and supporting local value creation.

I want students to understand that food biotechnology is not only about microorganisms, analytical methods, and process control. It is also about people, culture, available infrastructure, environmental conditions, and economic realities. The examples from Amazonia provide powerful case studies for teaching this broader, systems-oriented perspective.

What would you say to Swiss organizations working in this field about the value of coming to Brazil, experiencing the local context firsthand, and exploring potential partnerships with Brazilian institutions?

My main message would be: come with curiosity, humility, and enough time to listen. Visiting laboratories, farms, processing facilities and local enterprises reveals the real conditions under which people work and the knowledge, creativity and commitment that already exist.
Personal encounters also change the quality of a potential partnership. They help identify shared interests, but equally importantly, they reveal differences in priorities, infrastructure, expectations and ways of working. Understanding these aspects early is essential for developing realistic and equitable projects.

Swiss organisations should not approach Brazil with the assumption that collaboration is primarily about transferring Swiss technology or expertise. Brazilian institutions and local partners bring scientific excellence, unique knowledge of biodiversity, practical experience and a deep understanding of the regional context. The strongest partnerships will be based on complementarity, reciprocity and clearly defined responsibilities, including questions of funding, intellectual property, access to biological resources and benefit sharing.

Across all these experiences, one mission has become particularly important to me: Building bridges between Switzerland and the Amazon region in the field of food value chains.