Traditional acai berry dishes surprise visitors to Brazil climate summit, no sugar added

BELEM, Brazil (AP) – Some acai berry lovers visiting Brazil for this week’s U.N. climate summit are in for a surprise when they taste the fruit popular around the world in smoothies and breakfast bowls.

Acai bowls served by local vendors in Belem – the city hosting the 30th annual United Nations climate summit, the Conference of the Parties, known less formally as COP30 – are true to the dish’s rainforest roots, served unadulterated and without sugar.

This traditional preparation has been a tough sell for some visitors, used to the frozen and sweetened acai cream sold in other countries and elsewhere in Brazil.

“I can’t say this is bad and I totally respect the cultural importance of it, but I still prefer the ice creamy version,” said Catherine Bernard, a 70-year-old visitor from France, as she tasted a traditional acai berry bowl in downtown Belem on Thursday.

“Maybe if we add a little honey, some banana,” she added.

People in the Amazon, where the nutrient-rich berry has been cultivated for centuries by Indigenous populations, don’t treat their acai bowls as a side order or dessert.

It is often the main course for any meal. They don’t add granola, fresh fruit or nuts. Sugar is forbidden. Served at room temperature, the traditional dish is a thick liquid prepared from whole berries and a bit of water, typically sprinkled with tapioca flour.

Locals hope that exposing visitors to this original blend will increase awareness about a fruit facing pressure from tariffs and a changing environment.

“The acai coming from Indigenous people is the food when there’s no food. It was never a drink or an extra. It can be the main course for us,” Tainá Marajoara, an activist and owner of a restaurant, told The Associated Press, wearing an Indigenous headdress.

As Marajoara poured some of the dark liquid into an Amazon bowl called “cuia,” a vessel traditionally fashioned from gourds and now popular throughout Brazil, she said that acai trees need a protected surrounding in the rainforest so they can be at their best.

“Acai is also the blood running in the forest,” she added.

Marajoara’s restaurant at the COP30 pavilion charges 25 Brazilian reais ($5) for a bowl, about the same as bowls in other parts of Brazil that use industrially processed and sweetened acai cream, often with toppings.

That version was made popular in the mid-1990s by surfers and jiujitsu fighters in Rio de Janeiro, and then exported around the world as millions of tourists developed a taste for it.

Even in many parts of Brazil, it can be hard to find unsweetened acai. Some Brazilian parents who want their children to have the superfood’s benefits without the sugar look for stores that sell acai cream without added sweeteners. But most popular brands only produce sweetened versions.

Nearly all the acai consumed in the United States originates from Brazil, with the state of Para, whose capital is Belem, accounting for 90% of the country’s total production. Many communities in the Amazon depend on its harvest, which largely goes to the industrialized product.

Prices of acai smoothies look uncertain for U.S. consumers as the product is subject to a 50% tariff imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on many Brazilian exports.

The harvesting of acai is a physically demanding job that requires workers known as “peconheiros” to climb tall trees with minimal safety equipment to fill baskets and place them carefully in crates.

A full crate of acai sells for around $50 at local markets in Brazil, a price that is expected to plummet if U.S. sales slow down. The U.S. is by far the largest acai importer of a total Brazilian output, currently estimated at about 70,000 tons (63,500 metric tons) per year.

In some coastal areas of the Amazon under little environmental protection, erosion is changing the taste of some of the acai, making them saltier and less colorful. That’s why people like Marajoara keep pushing not only for their original bowls during COP30, but also for higher surveillance for acai trees of the region.

“The acai berry that belongs in our food culture comes from flood plain areas, from a healthy ecosystem,” she said. “For acai to be healthy, the rainforest needs to be healthy too.”