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SAMBAZON®, Inc. is a privately held American company based in San Clemente, California and founded in 2000.

SAMBAZON®, an acronym for Sustainable Management of the Brazilian Amazon, was the first company to introduce “Certified Açaí” to the world, supplying Organic and Fair Trade certified Açaí products from a proprietary supply chain, pioneering transparency from the “palm of the tree to the palm of your hand.” SAMBAZON’s Fair Trade certification has helped to protect the Amazon Rainforest and its rich biodiversity and has helped to positively impact thousands of local growers.  

All  SAMBAZON® products, including Smoothie Packs, Smoothie Cubes, Ready-to-Eat Açaí Bowls, Juices, Energy drinks, Açai Sorbet & Açaí Bites are made from USDA Organic, Non-GMO, Vegan, and Fair For Life Fair Trade Certified Açaí.

Additionally, SAMBAZON® Açaí Bowls Retail Concepts are available via franchising and licensing. The Bowl Shops are transforming quick serve restaurants offering configurations for multiple segments including Universities, Healthcare, Stadiums, Airports and Neighborhoods.

SAMBAZON® launched Seeding Change in 2020, a documentary highlighting mission-driven brands operating on triple-bottom-line business models and using commerce as a vehicle to create a more prosperous future for the people and the planet. With the commitment to invest a percentage of local Açaí purchases back into the community, SAMBAZON has contributed over $1 million to build healthcare centers, community centers, and schools.

History

SAMBAZON® was founded in 2000 by Ryan Black (Chief Executive Officer) with his brother Jeremy and friend Edmund “Skanda” Nichols following a trip to Brazil where they experienced their first Açaí bowls. Credited for introducing açaí to the US, the company started by selling frozen Açaí pulp to juice bars in Southern California, but now has distribution networks across the US, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico and Canada. In 2005, Sambazon built its own Açaí manufacturing plant in Brazil, establishing an organic, vertically-integrated supply chain for the berries.​

Since inception, SAMBAZON® has operated under a philosophy called the Triple Bottom Line, which measures success economically, socially and environmentally. This progressive, forward-thinking culture is thread through the fabric of SAMBAZON® today. Two decades before buzzwords like social-entrepreneurship and ESG existed, SAMBAZON®, in partnership with Organic and Fair Trade certifiers, established the standards for wild-harvesting the Açai crop through Sustainable Agroforestry.

Sustainability

SAMBAZON® operates as a triple bottom line business (whereby success is measured economically, socially and environmentally), and has worked closely with local and international NGOs, including The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Peabiru Institute, Amapa and Para State Federal Universities and more, to preserve the Amazon rainforest, ensure that their açaí berries are sustainably harvested, and that farmers are paid fair wages.

SAMBAZON® also founded the Sustainable Amazon Partnership (SAP) “to promote lasting sustainable management of the Brazilian Amazon, while improving the conditions of indigenous people through creative marketing of the açaí fruit,” and works to encourage environmental stewardship, stimulate biodiverse agro-forestry systems, and provide alternatives to logging, cattle, soy, and monoculture plantations through the project.

Awards

Sambazon is the recipient of several awards, including SELF 2013 Healthy Food Awards; Women’s Health 125 Best Packaged Food Awards 2012; BevNET Best of 2012 Award: Best Smoothie; InterBev: Best Organic Beverage Award 2012; SHAPE Snack Awards 2011; and the United States Secretary of State’s 2006 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) – Small-Medium Business Category.

Notes

1. Fuller, David (February 2013) “Thanks to Sambazon, Açaí Berries Benefit Consumers and Growers” Costco Connection.
2. “Sambazon: Making trees in the rainforest ‘too valuable to cut down’” Retrieved 1 January 2014. opic.gov.
3. Shilander, Jim (March 21, 2013) “San Clemente’s Own Brand of Superfood” San Clemente Times.
4. Watson, Elaine (January 3, 2013) “Sambazon and the Genesis of an Amazonian Super Food Empire” Food Navigator-USA.
5. Tischner, Ursula. “Case Studies in Sustainable Consumption and Production: Food and Agriculture” (Greenleaf Publishing, 2010) Pg 165-170
6. Cheeseman, Gina-Marie (December 1, 2010) “How Sustainability is Embedded in Sambazon” The Guardian.
7. Baker, Allison “Healthy Food Awards: Drinks” Retrieved 21 October 2013. SELF Magazine.
8. Staff (September 7, 2012) “125 Best Packaged Foods” Women’s Health.
9. “BevNET.com's Best of 2012” Retrieved 28 October 2013. BevNet.
10. Bill, Bruce (October 2012) "InterBev Awards 2012 Finalists and Winners Announced” FoodBev.com. Retrieved November 11, 2013
11. VanBuskirk, Maggie (July 25, 2013) “Snack Awards 2011: The 20 Best Low-Calorie Snacks” Archived 2015-01-13 at the Wayback Machine SHAPE Magazine.
12. (November 8, 2006) “Sambazon Named Winner of The Secretary of State's 2006 Award for Corporate Excellence” NewHope360.

• Companies established in 2000
• Food and drink companies of the United States
• Açaí
• Drink companies based in California