Dubai – Organic, natural açaí without preservatives straight from Belém, Brazil to the world. This is the premise of B.you, a company founded three years ago by the brothers Marcelo Matos (right in the picture) and Mauricio Matos (center) and their partner Cássio Godoy (left) that sells açaí as a frozen pulp, juice, and powder.
According to Marcelo, it all started when the partners were living in Indonesia. “There was no açaí there, so we saw a niche to explore and started taking açaí there, but we didn’t have external suppliers initially, so we settled for an in-house production,” he explained. Now, Marcelo and Mauricio live in São Paulo, while Godoy remains in Bali. The fourth partner, who wasn’t at Gulfood, is Michael Yung, who lives in Malta.
The company has a factory in Belém, Brazil, and already exports to more than ten countries, including Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Netherlands, Spain, and Indonesia, as well as selling in some organic food stores in São Paulo, Brazil.
B.you products are composed by three ingredients, organic açaí, organic tapioca starch, and organic sugar cane syrup. The product most sold to countries that already know açaí, according to Marcelo, is the frozen pulp. “The juice, however, is a good gateway for the other products, for those who don’t know the Amazonian fruit.”
Last month, representatives from the company traveled to Dubai and effected its first sale to an Arab country, a distributor in the emirate with more than 600 points of sale only in gas stations. “We are sending a closed container as a test and then we will negotiate the frequency of the next shipments,” said Marcelo. B-you products are halal-certificated.
In Gulfood, B.you is one of the showcase companies in APEX-Brasil pavilion. “We were invited to participate for the first time, then we returned to Dubai within a month,” he told. During the show, the partners talked to a company interested in opening an açaí-themed bar in Dubai. “They asked for our advice about opening this café here and we are talking. We have the know-how because we already own two restaurant-cafés in Bali,” said Godoy.
According to the partners, Gulfood already yielded visits to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, France, Germany, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, and others. “It is so good to be here as an entirely Brazilian, innovative company that sells healthy products,” stressed Godoy. B.you is associated to the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
