USA | Celebrating 25 years of dedication, SAMBAZON is still committed to leading positive impacts in the Amazon Rainforest.
SAMBAZON, the global leader of Certified Organic and Fair Trade Açaí products, is celebrating a major milestone: 25 years of positive impact on the lives of Amazon harvesters and the Amazon rainforest.
The journey of SAMBAZON's Açaí, what the company calls "Palm to Palm", from the palm of the Açaí tree to the palm of consumers' hands, is guided by three sustainability pillars: pioneering traceability, safeguarding the Amazon, and a light footprint. The company's latest impact report details how SAMBAZON measures these efforts.
"The conventional Açaí supply chain relies on middlemen, which can lead to unfair pay for harvesters and a lack of supply chain transparency without origin control or accountability," said SAMBAZON CEO Ryan Black, who helped found the company following a life-changing surfing trip to Brazil.
"SAMBAZON's priority has always gone far beyond profits. We created the first direct business model in the Açaí industry, one that's built around safeguarding the Amazon Rainforest and creating positive and personal benefits for our harvesters and their communities."
Since its founding, SAMBAZON has invested more than USD 1 million into its harvesting communities in the Amazon. In 2024 alone, SAMBAZON worked with 256 Acaí harvester communities and 827 individual Acaí harvesters in the Amazon. In a survey conducted last year by 60 Decibels on behalf of SAMBAZON, 93 percent of the harvesters surveyed say their lives have improved since working with SAMBAZON. All harvesters surveyed said the company has contributed to the development of their communities.
"We start by paying our harvesters a fair price for their Acaí so they can have a sustainable income," Black said.
"Our goal is for their families and communities to be more economically stable, reducing the need for logging or clear-cutting trees for agriculture. We require sustainable harvesting techniques, protect against deforestation. We also support construction projects and quality of life improvements within our harvesters' communities."
SAMBAZON's impact report highlights stories of its harvesters, such as 29-year-old Jair Furtado, who helped his father build a school in their community, and Nelson De Vasconcelos Filho. Filho shares how conservation and sustainable Açaí management are valued by residents of Amazon riverside communities, and now there is a greater economic incentive to keep the forest standing.
The 2024 SAMBAZON's Fair Trade certified harvest area in the Amazon Rainforest has grown to 100,204 acres, about four times the metropolitan area of Paris. SAMBAZON's way of doing business, including its Organic and Fair Trade certifications, helps safeguard this vital ecosystem, including endangered species, and promotes biodiversity.
SAMBAZON'S wild-harvested Acaí isn't treated with fertilisers or pesticides. The company's Organic and Fair Trade certifications are an additional assurance that forbidden pesticides and other chemicals are not contaminating the harvesting environment.
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