By guaranteeing food and economic security in the Amazon, açaí has increasingly gained prominence in Brazil and on the international scene. Pará, one of the main states in the biome, is the largest açaí producer: in 2023, 94% of national production originated in Pará, according to the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) [Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics]. In the same year, figures from the Secretaria de Estado de Desenvolvimento Agropecuária e da Pesca (Sedap) [State Secretariat for Agricultural and Fisheries Development] indicate that the value of exports reached US$ 27.74 million. Despite the performance, the challenges to maintain the production pace persist, affecting the traditional communities which depend on this product economy and are leading local researchers to develop even more methods to enhance the market.

Despite the leading position the state of Pará occupies regarding the açaí production, it is not a native company that holds the same position in terms of quantity produced. A company from Paraná, Polpanorte, has established itself as a national leader in the sector, reports data startup Scanntech. The industry’s base is located in Benevides, a municipality in the Metropolitan Region of Belém. In total, 160 tons of fruit per day are extracted and exported to 16 countries. The result is obtained by means of a verticalization process – a method that encompasses the entire cycle, from planning to marketing. With extractivists from the Amazon, this is a short-scale practice, but it represents a real alternative to boost numbers and improve product quality.

Difficulties

The challenges are still frequent. Transporting açaí for sale in other cities is seen as a determining factor. Teóforo Gomes, 46 years old, extractivist and director-president of the Cooperativa Agroextrativista e Pecuária da Comunidade Santo Ezequiel [Agroextractivist and Livestock Cooperative of the Santo Ezequiel Community], in Portel, a municipality in the Marajó Archipelago, works towards improvements. “We know there is the sale, but it is not the market we expected. Everything is still very tied to the middleman, because we don’t have the structure for the business”, he laments.

Food safety

During the açaí harvest period, which corresponds to the second half of the year (between August and November), the community of Santo Ezequiel collects 10,000 to 15,000 rasas – paneiros (a sort of basket shaped used to sell the açaí fruit) with 14 kilos of the fruit each. Recently, says Teóforo Gomes, the approximately 200 residents have spent less on staple food baskets, because the natural product has replaced a large part of their food, given the extremely high nutritional value of traditional consumption. There are 48 families working together to maintain income, based on family farming and extractivism. “Consumption, within the community, exceeds 70% [of what is produced]. The issue of açaí runs in the family, both in extraction and production”, he highlights.

Management is an alternative to increase productivity

The açaí off-season, in the first months of the year, is a problem for the Portel community. The quantity of the fruit decreases and prices increase, along with the lack of market breadth and the consequent unavailability of consumption. The solution may lie in the minimal impact management of açaí groves native to floodplain forests for fruit production, an initiative developed by the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa) [Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation] that has already shown results.

José Leite, forestry engineer and analyst at Embrapa, explains that one of the greatest benefits of the technique is improving the distribution of the fruit in all periods. To achieve this feat, the açaí tree is planted together with others of different species, allowing the necessary balance for production. The practice is carried out mainly in Pará and Amapá, the largest producers. “If you leave just the açaí palm, there will be no production. If it's just the other species, neither. So, we need balance. It will allow for a good production of açaí fruit, because these are trees that draw nutrients that serve as food for açaí trees, which cannot extract nutrients from very deep places. We, therefore, recommend 400 clumps of açaí trees per hectare and 250 individuals of other species. The big secret of technology lies in the size of these individuals. It is good to leave 60% of thin individuals, which are trees that are between 15 centimeters and 60 centimeters in circumference. This is important for the production of açaí and to maintain diversity”, says José Leite.

Deflorestation

Managing açaí groves solves another problem: deforestation in the Amazon. Faced with the problem of food scarcity, communities in the biome began to look for ways to overcome the situation. “When the riverside people started to realize that there was a demand and there was not enough supply [of açaí], the price started to increase and they began to intervene in the forest to produce more fruits. We noticed this was happening. So, we developed a technology that allows us to maintain the forest and increase the production of açaí fruit. The riverside people now have fruit in the açaí grove all year round, they now have fruit to consume and feed themselves and still have some left over to sell, even in the off-season”, says the analyst.

“Under normal conditions, the density of the açaí tree is low, there is not much production. If it's just to feed riverside families, it's enough and there's a little surplus. In the 1990s, there were around 100 thousand tons [produced], it was little, but sufficient, because demand was not that great. Even in Pará, it wasn't that high, there was no significant difference in price between harvest and off-season periods. Now, there is a huge demand and there is no supply in the [off-season] period. There was a strong publicity about the nutritional value of açaí, which is truly excellent, and this greatly stimulated consumption, including among us from Pará. We continue to be the largest consumers of açaí on the planet, we consume more than 80% of what is produced here”, says Leite.

Genetic improvement reduces seasonality

Another technique studied and developed by Embrapa to increase açaí production in the Amazon is the genetic improvement of açaí trees. Reduced seasonality of the fruit, higher pulp yield and early production are listed by the researchers as the practical differences. BRS Pai d’Égua, as the method was named, produces 46% in the off-season and 54% in the harvest.

João Tomé, a researcher at Embrapa, details that this type of action is essential to keep up with the demand seen in recent times. “Pará is the largest producer in Brazil. The characteristic of the production chain is high seasonality and this causes serious problems for all actors involved. During the off-season, unemployment occurs because the price is very high and there is food insecurity”, he explains.

Rural producers, associations, cooperatives, the retail market, exporters and consumers are positively affected by genetic improvement. Although it benefits a series of actors who directly take part in the production of açaí, the main focus of the research carried out by Embrapa is the artisanal worker.

Points

“This is what you find here, the açaí points in the city of Belém, or in greater Belém. In other words, the focus of this açaí production in conditions of dry land with irrigation and also the focus of this research is more to serve these processors, who we call artisanal, those who work, their children”, concludes João Tomé.

Climate change could affect production in the Amazon

Açaí production in the Brazilian Amazon takes on new contours based on phenomena that have occurred around the world. The study “Climate change can affect the future of extractivism in the Brazilian Amazon”, published in 2021, shows that the geographic distribution of 18 types of palm trees and trees used by populations in the biome could be affected by climate change by 2050 and other current problems, such as deforestation. The research, carried out in Extractive Reserves (Resexs), shows that 15 species would lose between 1% and 70% of their environmental suitability area. Euterpe precatoria and Euterpe oleracea – both scientific names of açaí species, could be completely extinct from two of the Resexs analyzed.

Exports

Despite climate projections and the difficulties imposed by the entire context experienced in the Amazon, açaí exports are going through a good moment. In Pará, between 2023 and 2024, the data points to a growth of 67.53% in the sector. This corresponds to more than R$45 million in products sent to other countries – with the United States being the main buyer, with more than 54% share -, according to Cassandra Lobato, coordinator of the Centro Internacional de Negócios da Federação das Indústrias do Estado do Pará (Fiepa) [International Business Center of the Federation of State Industries of Pará]. “Increasingly, açaí is positioning itself as a product that is gaining ground and remains in the contribution of products to the trade balance of the state of Pará. It is a product under our observation”, he comments.

“More than half of what is exported today from açaí goes to North American lands. In second place comes Australia, in third, the Netherlands, Holland, also demonstrating a high diversification of international buyers. In face of this scenario, we observe that there was really a very strong commercial promotion work on the part of the export industry, which is now entering the second semester with this harvest – the açaí harvest – and already preparing for the second semester and for the first half of the year 2025”, says Cassandra Lobato.