Fruits of the rainforest in a profitable harvest

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Fruits of the rainforest in a profitable harvest

By Andrea Walsh

For centimes, the resi­dents of Maues, a tree- covered area the size of Belgium on the Amazon River, have cultivated a bright-red, caffeine- loaded berry called guarana. Locals pick the berries, then slowly toast, the seeds to remove all traces of bit­terness. Finally, they are ground to a fine powder or pressed into bars, which can later be dis­solved in water.

The fruit’s energy-giving qualities have made it a popular ingredient in energy drinks around the world. Now, though, a new guarana venture demonstrates how smart Brazilian produc­ers are trying to add value at home and sell branded products over­seas.

AmBev, the Brazilian beverage company that buys most of the guarana produced in Maues, uses it to make Guarana Antarctica, the top-selling soft drink that is something of a national passion and a symbol of national pride

like supermodel Gisele and football great Ronaldo. Now AmBev managers are aiming to capitaJise on the unique­ly Brazilian qualities of their drink to win new customers around the world, initially in Spain, Portugal and Japan.

However, the obstacles are tremendous. The global soft-drinks indus­try is dominated by such companies as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Cadbury Schweppes, which all have huge marketing budgets.

Another challenge lies in the fact that most energy drinks, with the exception of Austria’s Red Bull, contain guaranâ. Most of them also contain vitamins and stimulants such as sugar, ginseng and caf­feine. So AmBev is work­ing hard to distinguish its product from the rest by emphasising its use of traditional guaranâ from Maués, while for other soft drinks, guaranâ is only one of many ingredients.

Going global may prove difficult, but at least for guarana, there will always be 180 million enthusiastic consumers in Brazil. The nation is already the world’s third largest soft-dri nks mar­ket, and its population is growing more rapidly than that of Western Europe. For the inhabi­tants of Maues, their local speciality will be in high demand in years to come.

FINANCIAL TIMES

Read the article carefully. Then choose from the list below the heading which best summarises each section. You will need four headings only.

a) A national passion goes global

b) A secure future

c) Guarana: some historical background

d) Making guarana: an age-old process

e) The advantages of globalisation

f) The challenges of going global

g) The most popular fruit in the world

h) Think globally, act locally

Work in groups of three or four to discuss these questions.

1 Guarana has energy-giving qualities. What do you eat or drink to get more energy?

2 What would be a good advertising slogan for marketing Guarana Antarctica

• worldwide?

• in your country?

Q Make these sentences passive. Use by only if it is important to say who did the action.

1 They make Suzuki cars in Hungary too.

Suiuki cars are made- in Hungary too.

2 Someone is repairing your washing machine now.

3 Bayer developed this new drug.

4 They were still researching into the effects of Alkaphen.

5 Bayer has retained all selling rights.

6 The question is, have we promoted our new range enough?

7 If sales continue to fall, we will have to discontinue it.

8 We should test this new product immediately.

9 We could improve its distribution.

10 We definitely have to improve the packaging.

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Дата добавления: 2015-09-30