Brazil nuts are practically unimaginable to farm, however White Lion Meals has cracked the problem
The health and well being trade has been rising quickly all over the world, together with in Singapore. Alongside this shift, customers are more and more searching for out nutrient-dense meals that may assist more healthy life.
Among the many most nutrient-dense meals on the planet is the Brazil nut, broadly recognised because the richest pure dietary supply of selenium.
Regardless of its dietary advantages, nonetheless, producing Brazil nuts is way from simple. Not like most nuts, they don’t seem to be cultivated on plantations however are wild-harvested from timber deep throughout the Amazon rainforest.
Even when producers handle to supply them, most Brazil nuts are bought both uncooked or coated in chocolate. It is because seasoning them has traditionally been tough—the nut’s pure construction prevents flavours from sticking properly.
However Singapore-based Actually Nuts! has taken on that problem. In 2024, it launched what it claims to be the world’s first savoury-flavoured Brazil nuts to native supermarkets.
Behind the model is Singapore-headquartered agri-tech firm White Lion Meals, which sources and processes Brazil nuts straight within the Amazon rainforest. The corporate operates two factories there—practically 18,000 kilometres from the city-state—that may course of as much as one billion Brazil nuts annually.
We spoke with Gareth Lloyd, 48 and Greg Vickers, 46, the co-founders behind the enterprise, to study extra about their entrepreneurial journey and the way they managed to show a nut that’s practically unimaginable to farm into a worldwide enterprise.
They went from DJ excursions to farming crops
Gareth and Greg’s path into the meals trade was removed from standard.
They first met throughout college in the UK and spent years working as digital music DJs, performing throughout greater than 15 international locations and touring extensively all through Latin America.
It was throughout these travels that they turned aware of the area’s agricultural exports. International locations like Peru had been producing high-quality meals, comparable to avocados and blueberries, that had been more and more showing in international supermarkets.
When Gareth moved to Singapore in 2012, he seen many of those merchandise had been beginning to be stocked domestically, sparking the concept different lesser-known exports may additionally discover a market.
And thus, White Lion Meals was born. That very same yr, Gareth roped in Greg, who had been dwelling in Brazil since 2010, and the duo invested about £60,000 every (about S$102,000 every) to begin the Singapore-based agri-tech enterprise.
They first selected to deal with purple garlic. After in depth analysis, the duo found that these varieties had been uncommon outdoors Peru, prompting them to focus on harvesting, processing, and exporting this distinctive crop grown excessive within the Andean mountains.
Over time, their enterprise expanded globally, supplying purple garlic to markets “all over the world,” and right now, White Lion Meals claims to be the primary exporter of Andean purple garlic.
It was a milestone for the enterprise, however focusing solely on Peruvian garlic quickly revealed a serious problem.
We had been principally investing all yr, and the garlic harvest would come round Sept. We’d promote till Dec, after which we had no income for the remainder of the yr.
Gareth Lloyd
In different phrases, the corporate had year-round working prices however only some months of earnings.
To resolve the seasonal income downside, the founders started experimenting with different crops that would complement the garlic harvest cycle.
Over the following few years, they experimented with quite a lot of crops—potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and even raisins—whereas exploring completely different provide chains. Many of those ventures, nonetheless, ended up as pricey classes.
Finally, in 2016, the duo found Brazil nuts.
Not like purple garlic, Brazil nuts are harvested between Jan and Could, making a complementary income cycle. “We immediately had this sensible cycle,” Gareth mentioned. “Brazil nuts collected throughout Q1 and Q2, and garlic in This autumn.”
Therefore, the founders determined to focus solely on these two merchandise: garlic and Brazil nuts, which are actually recognized to be their signature choices.
An “uncommon” nut
However harvesting Brazil nuts got here with its personal set of challenges.
They’re uncommon when in comparison with most different nuts present in supermarkets. Makes an attempt to farm them commercially have failed, making their manufacturing solely depending on pure, wild ecosystems deep throughout the Amazon rainforest.
The Brazil nut tree itself can dwell for a whole lot of years, producing massive, coconut-like fruits that fall naturally to the forest ground when ripe through the wet season. Native collectors, many from communities dwelling in Amazon areas, collect the fallen fruits, crack them open, and transport the in-shell nuts again to processing services—it’s largely a guide course of.
As such, alongside the manufacturing unit it had established within the Peruvian Amazon for purple garlic, White Lion Meals constructed one other facility deep within the Brazilian Amazon in 2016 to handle Brazil nut processing, hiring a workforce able to dealing with the labour-intensive work.
Presently, the corporate employs greater than 10,000 native and indigenous harvesters to gather the fallen fruits, together with over 3,000 employees throughout each its factories. Gareth claimed that his staff are paid greater than 50% greater than the regional market fee as a result of he believes in supporting the native communities.
At White Lion Meals’ factories, the Brazil nuts are fastidiously cleaned and dried in managed environments till their moisture content material drops to round 2–3%, making certain optimum high quality and lengthy shelf life.
The nuts are then sorted into completely different sizes and packed earlier than being exported to retailers and supermarkets comparable to Aldi and Hyundai department shops underneath white-label preparations.
Immediately, Gareth shared that White Lion Meals controls roughly 16% of the worldwide Brazil nut market. The corporate additionally processes each Brazil nuts and purple garlic for companions and retailers throughout greater than 45 international locations.
Creating their very own client model
After years of supplying Brazil nuts as a white-label producer, the founders determined to create their very own client model, with a deal with highlighting the Brazil nut itself.
For many years, these nuts had been bought principally uncooked or coated in chocolate, so the duo got down to develop a approach to introduce new flavours, notably savoury ones, that the market had by no means seen earlier than.
However savoury seasoning was tough to use due to the pure construction of Brazil nuts, which prevented flavours from sticking properly.
After months of trial and error—and collaboration with confectionery flavouring consultants within the UK—the corporate lastly developed a course of that enables savoury seasonings to stick correctly, unlocking an entire new approach to take pleasure in this nutrient-dense superfood.
That led to the launch of Actually Nuts! within the UK in December 2023 by British journey retailer WHSmith’s retailers throughout the nation and e-commerce platform, Amazon.
The model began out with 4 Brazil nut flavours, together with chilli, smoked, and chocolate variants.
Since March 2024, White Lion Meals begun promoting Actually Nuts! merchandise in Singapore. Its merchandise are actually stocked in retailers comparable to FairPrice, Chilly Storage, and Guardian, with a 120g bag of Brazil nuts ranging from S$8.50.
“The Brazil nut was such an undermarketed nut,” Gareth mentioned. “Folks don’t learn about it, they don’t know concerning the well being advantages, and so they don’t know that it helps the Amazon.”
Singapore was chosen as one of many model’s early markets partly due to its rising urge for food for more healthy snacks. Furthermore, that lack of understanding is exactly what the model hopes to alter.
The wholesome snack market right here has been on the rise and is projected to develop by about 70% to US$890 million (S$1.14 billion) by 2033, pushed by customers searching for handy choices amid more and more busy life.
That mentioned, the model has additionally needed to regulate some flavours to go well with Asian style preferences. Native customers, Gareth famous, are likely to favor barely decrease salt ranges however stronger flavour profiles in sure variants.
And naturally, sustaining product high quality has additionally led to tradeoffs, which the duo is prepared to make.
Chocolate-coated nuts, for example, are delicate to warmth—particularly in tropical climates like Singapore. As a substitute of utilizing stabilising chemical compounds typically present in confectionery merchandise, Gareth shared that the corporate transports its chocolate variants in refrigerated situations to forestall melting.
Whereas this incurs further logistics prices, he believes it’s essential to maintain the merchandise free from components.
Focused enlargement by journey retail
As White Lion Meals and its Actually Nuts! model grows, the corporate expects its services to course of multiple billion Brazil nuts this yr—equal to roughly 3,500 tonnes.
Income from its Brazil nut section alone is projected to succeed in between US$40 million and US$45 million, with about US$2 million coming from Actually Nuts!. Gareth envisions White Lion Meals increasing to produce a 3rd of the world’s Brazil nuts sooner or later.
Contemplating the model remains to be comparatively younger, Gareth sees this as just the start. Moderately than increasing into new international locations unexpectedly, the corporate plans to develop by journey retail first.
It’d sound stunning, however his reasoning is easy: airports give the model direct entry to worldwide travellers, serving to construct consciousness and demand earlier than shifting into broader retail markets.
By Could, Actually Nuts! goals to go dwell in about 80 extra WHSmith airport retailers throughout the globe, together with Europe and Singapore.
The corporate can be growing new product strains, with Brazil nut butter seen as having notably excessive potential.
Reflecting on the corporate’s unconventional journey—from DJ excursions to operating processing services within the Amazon—Gareth says entrepreneurship not often follows a linear path.
“You’ve simply obtained to get going with it,” he mentioned. “As I prefer to say, you need to construct the airplane when you’re flying.”
- Study extra about Actually Nuts! right here and White Lion Meals right here.
- Learn extra tales we’ve written on Singaporean companies right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Actually Nuts!
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