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In November 2003, EEV made its first loan in the Amazon Jungle of Brazil to a community-based environmental enterprise called SAMBA, Inc., which stands for Saving and Managing the Brazilian Amazon. The company recorded annual sales approaching $1 million in 2003 from its export and sale of Brazilian rainforest fruits. Along with developing robust revenues, SAMBA's mission is to protect the biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest and improve the socio-economic situation of the local people by promoting sustainable non-timber forest products. To that end, SAMBA works with hundreds of low-income fruit collectors organized into grassroots cooperatives located in the lush floodplains of the Amazon River in Northern Brazil.
This California-based company, with a wholly owned subsidiary in Brazil, was launched in 2000 soon after its founders "discovered" a unique palmberry called acai (ah-sigh-ee) that only grows in the Amazon Jungle. Extremely rich in nutrients, acai grows on millions of Amazonian palm trees (euterpe oleracea) spread all through the so-called Varzea Flooded Forest Region, where the Amazon River rises over nine meters (30 feet) every year, flooding the surrounding rainforests. Considered to be the single most nutritional fruit of the more than 200 edible wild varieties in the Amazon basin, acai has been a staple food for indigenous communities for centuries. In the vast, remote jungles of Para State, women use acai to feed their babies when they have difficulties lactating. The fruit, however, was brought to the rest of the Brazilian market only ten years ago, and only months ago in many parts of the United States-thanks to EEV's new partner in community-based conservation, SAMBA.
Now carried by Whole Foods and Wild Oats across the U.S., Sambazon Acai, the company's branded product, is a mixture of acai and the extract of guarana, another Amazon fruit that contains natural stimulants. Processed in packs of frozen pulp, it has quickly become popular among athletes and health conscious consumers due to its high content of antioxidants (33 times that of red wine!), fiber, amino acids and essential omegas. In addition to gaining brand awareness through strong support from celebrities and professional athletes (e.g. Sting, James Taylor, Kelly Slater-famous surfer), Sambazon Acai has received press coverage in The Wall Street Journal, The London Times, Vogue Magazine, In Style Magazine, and the NBC Today Show.
The rising demand for acai provides a unique opportunity to generate income for Amazonian populations through renewable forest resource management. SAMBA's raw material is currently supplied by 668 family fruit collectors organized into four worker-owned cooperatives inside the Varzea Flooded Forest Region in the northern Brazilian state of Para. The biological richness of this eco-region has drawn priority conservation action from the Brazilian government and some of the world's premier conservation NGO's inlcluding World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy and Greenpeace.
Written By: EcoLogic Enterprises Ventures, Inc.
The antioxidant content in acai leaves rival fruits struggling to play catch up:
50 times greater than mangoes.
Three time greater than blueberries.
Two times greater than pomegranates.
10 to 33 times greater than red wine grapes.
To read a review on a high quality acai product click on Acai Product Review.
