Acai the Brazilian Superfood Now in a Store Near You

Travis Baumgardner is the Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer for Sambazon, a company that produces acai products in Brazil and imports them to America.

Acai is a fruit which grows high atop the acai palm trees in the Amazon River Delta where the palms live with the tides every day. Long a staple of the “river people’s” diet, acai is loaded with antioxidants. It cuts cholesterol, lowers the risk of heart attacks, and improves brain health. Today, Sambazon is selling its acai products in Costco, Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and ~30,000 supermarkets throughout the United States.

Travis talks about how this all came about. He first went to Brazil with the intent to visit for three weeks. But he stayed for 12 years. He fell in love with the acai bowls that were just beginning to be served in Rio de Janeiro. Acai was clearly exploding in popularity in Brazil, and Travis quickly realized its export potential. He flew north to visit the eastern part of Brazil where acai grows in bio-diverse agroforestry, not in plantations or monocultures. So he started Sambazon with his U.S.-based colleague Ryan Black, with a commitment to sustainability and regenerative production.

Travis is proud of Sambazon and how it has adhered to it sustainability principles. Its products are Fair Trade and organic. Later in the podcast he talks about the new ROC certification, Regenerative Organic Certification, and how ROC gives credits for the extent to which Sambazon honors the rainforest communities in which it harvests acai. ROC builds on the USDA’s organic certification with parameters including soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness. Not only is Sambazon paying fair wages, but Sambazon is funding new schools and hospitals in the region where it sustainably harvests acai.

Workers in the jungle climb trees as high as 80 feet tall to harvest “brooms” of acai berries. The fruits, which look like berries, are actually 90% seed. And making matters more complex, the fruit – like milk – has to be refrigerated within 24 hours. Today, Sambazon is harvesting 70 million pounds of acai each year, 59 million pounds of which are seeds that they now sell to local industries in the Amazon as a feedstock for boilers.

In Brazil, indigenous people have been eating acai for centuries. After softening the berries and sieving off the skin and seeds, they soak the acai, ultimately making it into an unsweetened puree that they eat as porridge or savory side dish. Ted and Travis talk about acai bowls served routinely in the United States. While acai has no sugar, for the American pallet, sweeteners are added, and bowls are often topped with fruits and granola. In addition to selling to major food retailers in the United States, Sambazon also has stores in 14 U.S. airports.