The business-minded brothers had a goal – not just introduce a little-known berry to the United States, but to look back in 20 years and know they had made a difference in the Amazon Rainforest.

It was the eve of the new millennium, 1999, when Ryan Black and friend Edmund Nichols took a trip to Brazil and got their first taste of the açai berry that grows in the dense rainforest.

Indigenous communities had long used the berries in their diet and Brazilian athletes had made them popular in the ’90s, but in the United States, the bright, exotic fruit was unknown. Now there is a National Açaí Bowl Day, which was celebrated Wednesday, April 6.

Two decades after Black, his brother, Jeremy, and Nichols created SAMBAZON, the San Clemente company announced a milestone recently reached of $1 million invested in local schools, hospitals and other community infrastructure the rainforest and other places where it employs hundreds of people.

Ryan Black, who lives in San Clemente, recently talked about the venture and how the company has kept to their vision of a sustainable business that gives back. Their brand is an acronym for Sustainable Management of the Brazilian Amazon.

“We wanted to be able to look back and know we helped shape an industry and we did positive things in the environment to help the Amazon,” Black said. “If we could engineer our business model so that it would benefit the local people and also the biodiversity of the rainforest.”

Part of the community

Previously, the growers would sell their açai harvest, pronounced ah-sigh-ee, to a guy with a boat and then it was gone, Black said.

“There was no understanding of where it goes. There’s no connection with the first purchaser or the people consuming it,” he said, looking back to the company’s early goals. “If we did it right, this could be the world’s first mainstream eco product. That was really the vision we had for it.”

By 2003, Black and his partners had created an organic certification plan, spearheaded by current Chief Customer Officer and co-founder Travis Baumgardner, ensuring the berries were sustainably harvested by açai growers.

They also created a Fair Trade Fund to give a percentage of the company’s sales back to reinvest into the growers’ communities, building schools, health care centers and supporting various other social programs.

“Through the relationships that keep getting stronger over time, we understand their needs,” Black said. “It’s allowed us to be a really positive partner in the community.”

SAMBAZON through the years has earned several accolades, including the Award for Corporate Excellence in 2006, which the State Department hands out to American companies that strive for international social and environmental change through their business practices.

While Sambazon touts its Fair Trade certification, a recent  Washington Post article highlights concerns about the acai industry in Brazil, with critics saying child labor continues to be an issue and labor analysts and researchers saying the supply chain is almost impossible to track.

Black, in a response to the article, said the company was founded to combat these issues and has worked diligently for two decades to formalize and raise standards through producer guidelines, third-party audits, fair trade certification and consumer education.

“While açai exports make up less than 10% of the açai industry overall, we are proud to be the company that brought açai to the world and in a way that promotes fair trade and organic practices,” he said. “We hope that through more formalized social and environmental standards that açai can truly achieve its potential to become one of the most positive forces in the Amazon Rainforest.”

A research group based in Brazil, Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, has been tracking how growth in the popularity of açai has impacted local communities.

“With the growing demand for the production of fruits and palm hearts, the native açaí groves of the Amazon River estuary began to undergo a strong process of exploitation with consequent degradation of natural resources, in addition to presenting low economic returns when analyzing the production of fruits and palm hearts by area,” a report reads.

But since açaí plants have a great ability to reproduce, there is an “excellent opportunity” for the “management of native açaí groves to solve this problem,” by using sustainability in the species’ production chain.

Black said it’s the people at the base of the supply chain who are the lifeblood of SAMBAZON and it’s the company’s goal to give back to those who help the brand thrive.

“This is a whole partnership, we are just a cog in the wheel of this partnership so that good energy, that good vibration goes from the forest all the way through to the product,” he said. “That’s something, 20 years later, we’re proud of.”

Seeds for growth

The company’s best sellers remain the unsweetened purees found at stores such as Mother’s Market and Sprouts, which many people use to make smoothies. Today, SAMBAZON makes a variety of products, including natural energy drinks, and has made an expansion into other flavors such as dragon fruit, more popular in southeast Asia and sourced using the same sustainability model.

A recently launched product Black said he is especially proud of is ready-to-eat bowls, made with 100% plant-based packaging.

“Sustainability is not only about what’s happening in Brazil, but the whole company and the carbon footprint and everything we are pushing out there,” he said.

Nearly all açai, about 98%, grow wild in the Brazilian Amazon and it is one of the most common trees in the rainforest. Despite the similarity in size and appearance, the açai berry is not like a blueberry, but more like a date that grows on a palm tree.

Most of the açai berry is a solid pit, which the company burns for fuel and makes into jewelry. Açai is high in omega fats, antioxidants, fiber and unlike most fruits, is low in naturally occurring sugar.

The company has about 500 employees, 75% of whom are based in Brazil.

Looking ahead, the brand is launching its own retail stores, the first already open in Cardiff and another is planned for Petco Park in San Diego.

“There’s a lot of opportunity in interesting places for us,” Black said, noting SAMBAZON currently sells in 40 countries.

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There’s still room for growth in the market and Black said the company doesn’t mind that others have followed with their own versions of açai products.

“The household penetration is tiny. Other people promoting açai is the best possible thing, it’s creating awareness all around the world,” he said. “Everyone out there promoting açai and the health benefits, we’re supporters of that.”