Bowl of traditional açaí with sliced bananas, seasonal berries, and honey drizzle.
This is my açaí order every week at It’s Thyme. Every Friday, as a first-year Brazilian, I have a personal custom of forgoing Marketplace dinner to use my equivalency on açaí. I pay around $11.78, plus $0.90 in fees, so I need to swipe my DukeCard twice—the first swipe is free, and the second charges an extra dollar in food points.
Açaí first hit the world stage in the 2000s. Coming straight from the capital of the Brazilian Amazon, açaí made its way to California, riding alongside a strong surf culture. The bowl format, topped with granola, banana, and honey, became a craze among California surfers and quickly spread to Hawaii and major urban centers. In 2008, a 16-ounce açaí smoothie at a Costa Mesa health-food market sold for $5.95. These days, paying $11 for a bowl of açaí is a decent deal. According to Food Data Scrape, a firm that tracks food pricing data, the price of an average açaí bowl rose 34.82% between 2021 and 2025 alone.
When, in July 2025, the American president announced 50% tariffs on Brazilian products—including açaí—American newspapers sounded the alarm: “After all, who was going to eat all of that Amazon berry, globally famous as a delicious, refreshing and nutritious superfood, if American consumers suddenly could no longer afford it?” asked the Associated Press.
Never mind the fact that açaí isn’t technically a berry but a drupe, like a peach. The newspapers didn’t mention that while Americans might lose access to one more luxury item, the tariffs could hit about 300,000 açaí workers in the Amazonian state of Pará. But in reality, by November, açaí—along with other Brazilian goods—quietly came off the American government’s list of taxed products. But why? Was the California surfer crowd really enough to stop a 50% tariff on certain Brazilian products, saving the livelihoods of more than 300,000 Brazilians in the process?
The Diplomacy of Açaí Bowl
In 2025, the “diplomacy of açaí bowls” officially started. After the tariffs on açaí and other products in July, Trump and Lula had a quick, informal chat as Lula left the podium at the UN General Assembly and Trump stepped up to it. The conversation, which lasted less than a minute, caught the world by surprise when Trump took the stage and announced that the two had “excellent chemistry,” adding: “He seemed like a very nice man, actually. He liked me, I liked him.” This moment proved to the world the emerging power of the charismatic apparatus Lula possessed within the international community.
On September 22, Brazil’s president stepped up again to the podium at the United Nations to officially open the UN General Assembly debates, and world leaders watched closely.
However, when the Brazilian president opened his speech by declaring that the United Nations itself is in a state of declining credibility, he immediately tied his message to the decline of everything the organization stands for, highlighting the fragility of the same diplomatic channel he opened a year ago.
“Since I first took this podium in 2003, this is the most critical moment for the United Nations. What moves me today is indignation. The UN is failing at one of its highest missions—freeing humanity from the scourge of war. Its credibility has never been so low,” he said.
Interestingly, looking back at Brazil itself, trust in Brazil’s Congress sits at just 34 points out of 100 in Ipsos-Ipec’s 2026 Social Trust Index. The president scored only 42 points, and his government just 46. For a president who, back in 2010, had an approval rating above 80% and is now struggling to reach even 50%, it looks like a loss of credibility as steep as the one facing the United Nations.
After a speech of more than 20 minutes, Lula—opening the General Debate for the 10th time—drew applause in the hall. The American delegation did not join in. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom Lula had called a “frustrated Latin American” just weeks earlier, pointed toward Lula on his way out of the chamber but spoke only with Brazil’s foreign minister.
It was a sweeping, progressive speech, touching on everything from the Palestinian cause, online gambling, and climate change to overhauling the international system and democracy itself.
However, just like Lula, an opposing force on the other side of the hemisphere was gearing up with its own speeches and applause.
The Bolsonaros vs. Your It’s Thyme Bill
On October 4, Brazilians went to the polls to choose between two familiar names. On one side, Lula dominates the Workers’ Party (PT)—running as its candidate for the seventh time. On the other, the Bolsonaro clan and the Liberal Party (PL)—a far-right Brazilian party—have nominated Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is now imprisoned for attempting a coup.
Going into the vote, the last Quaest poll had Lula at 39% of voting intentions, with Flávio trailing close behind at 34%. But in a possible runoff—under Brazil’s electoral rules, if no candidate wins 50%+1 of the vote, a second round is held between the top two candidates—Flávio Bolsonaro tied with Lula at 42%. On election night, Flávio did better than the polls suggested: with 99% of ballots counted, he led Lula 47% to 45%, sending the race to a runoff on October 25.
While Lula used the UN podium to promote Brazil’s stability, Flávio toured Maranhão, one of Brazil’s poorest states, running a populist campaign fiercely opposed to the current government, leaning into flag-waving nationalism and making direct references to his father. Flávio was chasing massive support in one of Brazil’s leading açaí-producing states.
Eduardo Bolsonaro is the former president’s third son, and he’s the reason the tariffs almost cost a lot more than my post-equivalency dollar at It’s Thyme. In August 2025, the congressman—whose mandate has since been revoked—met with a series of American officials in Washington to push to keep the 50% tariffs on Brazil in place.
The former president’s son told Reuters, after meetings with senior U.S. officials, that the tariffs are “bitter medicine” meant to counter what he called an out-of-control legal offensive against his father, Jair Bolsonaro, who was then on trial over the coup attempt.
Well, as you and I both know, açaí at It’s Thyme is still at the national average price; Bolsonaro’s counter-diplomacy with açaí failed internationally. Lula kept getting applauded by international leaders; diplomatic contact between the U.S. and Brazil is still leaving room to negotiate the rest of the tariffs, and there’s still room for President Donald J. Trump to, for the second time, say he has “chemistry” with Brazil’s leftist president. But Lula’s internal approval rate is declining, and the difference between the fall of the UN and the fall of Lula’s internal politics is that, in one, he can still find concessions. In the other, he just feeds the other side’s populist campaign.
Is My Açaí About to Get More Expensive?
On September 21, the day before his UN speech, President Lula gave an interview to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour—who had already interviewed him the previous year, when President Trump first threatened 50% tariffs on Brazil. In it, the head of the Workers’ Party stated that he is confident he will win the election.
“What’s at stake today is a choice: either we have democracy, or we have barbarism; either we have a policy of preserving nature, or deforestation; a policy of social inclusion, or we leave the poor behind; either we strengthen culture, or we destroy it. That’s what’s at stake right now. And I have no doubt that I will win this election,” he said.
As he would the next day at the UN General Assembly, Lula points to the “edge” of the democratic forces in Brazil’s politics. Meanwhile, world leaders are greeting Lula. The Brazilian president’s relationship with internal forces—such as Congress and the public—remains undermined by the lack of an internal coalition. For a president who developed chemistry with Donald Trump, even as a left-wing politician, facing Brazilian society and Congress is proving to be a much tougher challenge.
As Amanpour pointed out during the interview, compared to Lula’s last election in 2022, at this same point in the race the current president was already 9 percentage points ahead of former president Jair Bolsonaro. As a result, the former president’s son is riding a wave of overconfidence, gaining ground among swing voters and narrowing the gap against Lula.
Candidate Flávio Bolsonaro remains neck-and-neck with Lula, pushing his campaign through Brazil’s North and Northeast—historically the poorest regions—while Lula makes his case in the U.S. for multilateral diplomacy, a push that also expands the exploitation of Brazil’s commodities, like açaí.
As Duke students, you don’t truly need to worry about any of this. Like good Americans, you’ll only feel the fallout from Brazil’s elections as it ripples into the U.S., nudging the price of açaí and a few types of meat—but beyond that, you definitely shouldn’t be worrying about Brazil’s elections. Just worry about your açaí.
by Samuel Moura
