Summary
Highlights
Harvesting acai in Brazil is a perilous task, with workers climbing thin palm trees deep in the Amazon rainforest. Despite acai becoming a popular and expensive superfood in the U.S., small farms struggle to profit from its booming popularity, which puts pressure on traditional families like Lucas Nogueira's.
Lucas and his family use only a single rope, a 'peconia', to climb the acai trees. The climb is dangerous, and workers like Lucas's son, Louise Fernando, must be lightweight. Carrying harvested branches down is also risky, as dropping them can damage the fragile fruit. In 2021, Lucas's family earned only about $950 for 53 baskets, equating to roughly 20 cents per pound, a stark contrast to the $7 or more a pound of processed acai sells for in the U.S. Farmers have little leverage due to the fruit's rapid spoilage.
Acai markets operate overnight due to the fruit's short shelf life, with prices fluctuating daily based on demand. While most acai stays in Brazil, exports have soared by 14,000% between 2011 and 2020, with over 70% of Brazil's exports going to the U.S. A significant price jump of about 177% occurs during processing, turning raw fruit into frozen pulp for the global market.
Acai's popularity surged in Brazil in the 1980s as a workout food and was later branded a 'superfood' with exaggerated health claims. Nutritionists dispute these claims, emphasizing that no single food can solve numerous health issues. This commercialized image is a stark contrast to its traditional use by indigenous people in the Amazon, who have consumed it for centuries as a staple food, often with savory meals.
Children working in the acai industry have drawn media attention, but for farmers like Lucas, it's a centuries-old tradition of families learning the trade. Lucas's community is a 'quilombo,' a settlement established by enslaved Africans, many of whom learned harvesting techniques from indigenous people. Despite their rich heritage, many quilombola communities still live in extreme poverty. The rise of large-scale monoculture plantations, which require irrigation and diverge from natural flood plain growth, threatens these traditional practices and the diverse ecosystem.
Experts worry that the growing popularity of acai could lead to the loss of cultural traditions in Para and the Amazon. Small producers favoring acai trees over other crops could also become an issue. For Lucas and many others, acai harvesting is a source of pride, representing generations of tradition and their connection to the land.