Let’s Make Forests Great Again.
We were pleased to participate in the Amazon Week in Berlin at the Brasilian Embassy on 1 & 2 June. Following past years which highlighted indigenous activism and preparations for the COP 30, This year’s edition was focused on the promotion of the region’s Bio Economy.
BioEconomy, can those two words be used together or is that an Oxymoron? Sometimes talks about sustainable bio-economical development in the Amazons seems like rhetoric. No one raised the question how we could sit behind closed doors in the Brasilianische Botschaft in Berlin planning the ‚future of the forest‘ and promotion of products from the bio-economy without considering the cultures who enrich this biodiversity.
According to an article about Greenwashing in the Amazon Atlas from the Boell Stiftung,
When nature is transformed into a financial asset, the impacts of this economic deicide go beyond the availability of natural resources or even its conception of a sanctuary.
How do we live in harmony with nature fostering bio diversity yet meet growing market demands?
We shared our experiences with making a market for sustainably sourced Mate in Berlin on a Panel about The German market: Consumer Demand and Industrial Applications
We work with products from the Atlantic Forest. Not the Amazon Biome. However, there are many learnings that one could take from this. In the past 15 years we have seen a huge growth in the demand from forest origin mate in Germany in a niche market that was dominated by Argentinean monoculture.
Although we have not been able to stop the encroachment of the Soya monocultures in the region yet, it is promising to see how it is possible to raise consumer consciousness and offer them the opportunity to support sustainable sourcing with the purchase.
Brasil benefits because it still has the largest amount of native Mate Forests in Parana and producers were quick to catch onto the international market demands with certifications (though the process is complicated and mostly benefits large producers)
It was a big victory for the Brasilian Mate Sector in May 2025 to be recognised by the United Nation’s Food & Agriculture Organisation as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System that keeps forests alive. We hope that this will encourage small producers to maintain their practice, but we do know the challenges they face, especially in the state of Rio Grade do Sul, where native forests are nearly non-existent in a landscape of soya and eucalyptus monocultures.
There was not much awareness or support from Brasilian Bodies when we started. We had to do studies, tests and work through certifications with producers.
Being in close contact with our producers and having mutual respect for one another and agreeing on quantities and price have been key in our path.
Opening up the market was not easy, mate is still a niche, but we hope as mate gets more popular there will be more awareness raised.
We benefited from being pioneers; by not only focusing on Mate as a raw ingredient but also as a lifestyle.