Every year between December and March, the 56-year-old farmer travels to an indigenous reserve in Bolivia's northern Pando department to collect the nut of Bertholletia excelsa, a tree that can grow up to 60 meters tall and live up to 1000,<> years.

To avoid bites, it is with a kind of long wooden clamp that the brown hulls thrown to the ground by the wind and rain are collected.

Up to 80,000 indigenous families in Bolivia are involved in harvesting Brazil nuts, according to Luis Larrea, coordinator of the Bolivian Association for Research and Conservation of Andean and Amazonian Ecosystems.

If its production represents only 1 or 2% of Bolivian GDP, its cultivation has an environmental interest with the "conservation of 87,000 km2 of forest, or 7% of the forest area of the country," says the expert.

Jorge Lengua picks up a Brazil nut with a stick with a kind of tongs, near Luz de America, on February 14, 2023 in Bolivia © Martín SILVA / AFP

By 2022, nearly 4.5 million hectares have been converted to agricultural land, 18 percent of which is forest, according to the Environment Ministry.

In 2020, the Andean country was the world's leading exporter of Brazil nuts, according to the latest available data from the NGO Instituto Boliviano de Comercio Exterior (IBCE), far ahead of Peru and Brazil.

Man from the Amazon

Once the cockles are collected, Jorge Lengua and his 25-year-old son, also named Jorge, settle under an imposing tree to split them with machetes and remove the white seeds covered with a thick brown envelope and praised for their nutritional qualities.

"This is the life of a man from the Amazon," says the man wearing white rubber boots while chewing coca leaves to have "more energy".

Jorge Lengua opens Brazil nut shells with a machete in the Amazon rainforest, near Luz de America, on February 14, 2023 in Bolivia © Martín SILVA / AFP

For every 70 kg bag of Brazil nuts sold, the farmer gets the equivalent of forty dollars. However, he deplores a bad year for the trade of this "luxury product" between war in Ukraine, pandemic and inflation.

Due to the pandemic, shipments to the European market have been delayed, said Mauricio Valdez, director of Tahuamanu, one of Bolivia's leading Amazon nut processing companies.

In 2022, the Netherlands (35%), the United States (20%) and Germany (14%) were the main destinations for Brazil nut exports, totalling $250 million, according to IBCE.

Brazil nuts shelled, ready to eat, in the Amazon rainforest, near Trinchera, on February 16, 2023 in Bolivia © Martín SILVA / AFP

In France, the kilo of shelled Brazil nuts is traded between 25 and 60 euros per kilo, depending on the container. More expensive than almonds or other cashews.

© 2023 AFP