Acai Berry Demand May Create Negative Effects

The recent flood in demand from the global market for the acai berry has even the Sambazon team a little concerned for the well being of the rain forest. Sambazon's founders are credited with launching the acai craze in the U.S., which has lead to a surge of acai related products into the market not only from their label but many others as well.

The rain forest where the acai fruit grows may be jeopardized by the harvesting of this berry. Sambazon's reputable practice of "green" business in which they harvest the berry from palms growing in the wild natural environments of Brazil may not be enough to protect the rain forest. Due to the increased demand in the market other conglomerates are finding their way into the popular acai trade and it seems some of these organizations are not as environmentally conscious as Sambazon.

In the recent past harvesting of the fruit was done simply from naturally growing palms in the jungle, but the success of the berry has seen clear cutting occur to accommodate plantations of acai where there is a liberal use of pesticides and fertilizer. A Brazilian agronomist, Alfredo Homma, says this is "a form of 'green deforestation' ...they don't bring down all the trees and leave the area deforested. They bring down diverse forests and replace them with one single culture -- acai."  

An entrepreneur of one sprawling plantation, Ben-Hur Borges, claims his acai groves restored an area of land that was previously ravaged by loggers, cattle ranchers and developers, and therefore brought back to life what was a 'degraded forest'.

Ryan Black, Sambazon founder, clearly has concerns and suggests it's important to maintain the biodiversity of the forest and not clear cut everything on the land to plant solely acai palms. He says, "We want to look back [in] 20 years and see that acai has been a positive force in the Amazon," Black says, "not just a fruit that became domesticated and found success at the price of the local people and their environment."

Source: latimes.com