With 2 factories in the Amazon, this S’pore biz sells 1 bil Brazil nuts/yr to 45 countries

Brazil nuts are nearly impossible to farm, but White Lion Foods has cracked the challenge 

The fitness and health industry has been growing rapidly around the world, including in Singapore. Alongside this shift, consumers are increasingly seeking out nutrient-dense foods that can support healthier lifestyles.

Among the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet is the Brazil nut, widely recognised as the richest natural dietary source of selenium.

Despite its nutritional benefits, however, producing Brazil nuts is far from straightforward. Unlike most nuts, they are not cultivated on plantations but are wild-harvested from trees deep within the Amazon rainforest.

Even when producers manage to source them, most Brazil nuts are sold either raw or coated in chocolate. This is because seasoning them has historically been difficult—the nut’s natural structure prevents flavours from sticking well.

But Singapore-based Truly Nuts! has taken on that challenge. In 2024, it launched what it claims to be the world’s first savoury-flavoured Brazil nuts to local supermarkets.

Behind the brand is Singapore-headquartered agri-tech company White Lion Foods, which sources and processes Brazil nuts directly in the Amazon rainforest. The company operates two factories there—nearly 18,000 kilometres from the city-state—that can process up to one billion Brazil nuts each year.

We spoke with Gareth Lloyd, 48 and Greg Vickers, 46, the co-founders behind the business, to learn more about their entrepreneurial journey and how they managed to turn a nut that’s nearly impossible to farm into a global business.

They went from DJ tours to farming crops

Gareth and Greg’s path into the food industry was far from conventional.

They first met during university in the United Kingdom and spent years working as electronic music DJs, performing across more than 15 countries and touring extensively throughout Latin America.

It was during these travels that they became familiar with the region’s agricultural exports. Countries like Peru were producing high-quality foods, such as avocados and blueberries, that were increasingly appearing in global supermarkets.

When Gareth moved to Singapore in 2012, he noticed many of these products were starting to be stocked locally, sparking the idea that other lesser-known exports could also find a market.

And thus, White Lion Foods was born. That same year, Gareth roped in Greg, who had been living in Brazil since 2010, and the duo invested about £60,000 each (about S$102,000 each) to start the Singapore-based agri-tech venture.

They first chose to focus on purple garlic. After extensive research, the duo discovered that these varieties were rare outside Peru, prompting them to concentrate on harvesting, processing, and exporting this unique crop grown high in the Andean mountains.

Over time, their business expanded globally, supplying purple garlic to markets “around the world,” and today, White Lion Foods claims to be the number one exporter of Andean purple garlic.

It was a milestone for the business, but focusing solely on Peruvian garlic soon revealed a major challenge.

In other words, the company had year-round operating costs but only a few months of income.

To solve the seasonal revenue problem, the founders began experimenting with other crops that could complement the garlic harvest cycle.

Over the next few years, they experimented with a variety of crops—potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and even raisins—while exploring different supply chains. Many of these ventures, however, ended up as costly lessons.

Eventually, in 2016, the duo discovered Brazil nuts.

Unlike purple garlic, Brazil nuts are harvested between Jan and May, creating a complementary revenue cycle. “We suddenly had this brilliant cycle,” Gareth said. “Brazil nuts collected during Q1 and Q2, and garlic in Q4.”

Hence, the founders decided to focus entirely on these two products: garlic and Brazil nuts, which are now known to be their signature offerings.

An “unusual” nut

But harvesting Brazil nuts came with its own set of challenges.

They are unusual when compared to most other nuts found in supermarkets. Attempts to farm them commercially have failed, making their production entirely dependent on natural, wild ecosystems deep within the Amazon rainforest.

The Brazil nut tree itself can live for hundreds of years, producing large, coconut-like fruits that fall naturally to the forest floor when ripe during the rainy season. Local collectors, many from communities living in Amazon regions, gather the fallen fruits, crack them open, and transport the in-shell nuts back to processing facilities—it is largely a manual process.

As such, alongside the factory it had established in the Peruvian Amazon for purple garlic, White Lion Foods built another facility deep in the Brazilian Amazon in 2016 to manage Brazil nut processing, hiring a workforce capable of handling the labour-intensive work.

Currently, the company employs more than 10,000 local and indigenous harvesters to collect the fallen fruits, along with over 3,000 staff across both its factories. Gareth claimed that his workers are paid more than 50% higher than the regional market rate because he believes in supporting the local communities.

At White Lion Foods’ factories, the Brazil nuts are carefully cleaned and dried in controlled environments until their moisture content drops to around 2–3%, ensuring optimal quality and long shelf life.

The nuts are then sorted into different sizes and packed before being exported to retailers and supermarkets such as Aldi and Hyundai department stores under white-label arrangements.

Today, Gareth shared that White Lion Foods controls roughly 16% of the global Brazil nut market. The company also processes both Brazil nuts and purple garlic for partners and retailers across more than 45 countries.

Creating their own consumer brand

After years of supplying Brazil nuts as a white-label manufacturer, the founders decided to create their own consumer brand, with a focus on highlighting the Brazil nut itself.

For decades, these nuts had been sold mostly raw or coated in chocolate, so the duo set out to develop a way to introduce new flavours, particularly savoury ones, that the market had never seen before.

But savoury seasoning was difficult to apply because of the natural structure of Brazil nuts, which prevented flavours from sticking well.

After months of trial and error—and collaboration with confectionery flavouring experts in the UK—the company finally developed a process that allows savoury seasonings to adhere properly, unlocking a whole new way to enjoy this nutrient-dense superfood.

That led to the launch of Truly Nuts! in the UK in December 2023 through British travel retailer WHSmith’s outlets across the country and e-commerce platform, Amazon.

The brand started out with four Brazil nut flavours, including chilli, smoked, and chocolate variants.

Since March 2024, White Lion Foods begun selling Truly Nuts! products in Singapore. Its products are now stocked in retailers such as FairPrice, Cold Storage, and Guardian, with a 120g bag of Brazil nuts starting from S$8.50.

“The Brazil nut was such an undermarketed nut,” Gareth said. “People don’t know about it, they don’t know about the health benefits, and they don’t know that it supports the Amazon.”

Singapore was chosen as one of the brand’s early markets partly because of its growing appetite for healthier snacks. Moreover, that lack of awareness is precisely what the brand hopes to change.

The healthy snack market here has been on the rise and is projected to grow by about 70% to US$890 million (S$1.14 billion) by 2033, driven by consumers seeking convenient options amid increasingly busy lifestyles.

That said, the brand has also had to adjust some flavours to suit Asian taste preferences. Local consumers, Gareth noted, tend to prefer slightly lower salt levels but stronger flavour profiles in certain variants.

And of course, maintaining product quality has also led to tradeoffs, which the duo is willing to make.

Chocolate-coated nuts, for instance, are sensitive to heat—especially in tropical climates like Singapore. Instead of using stabilising chemicals often found in confectionery products, Gareth shared that the company transports its chocolate variants in refrigerated conditions to prevent melting.

While this incurs additional logistics costs, he believes it is necessary to keep the products free from additives.

Targeted expansion through travel retail

As White Lion Food and its Truly Nuts! brand grows, the company expects its facilities to process more than one billion Brazil nuts this year—equivalent to roughly 3,500 tonnes.

Revenue from its Brazil nut segment alone is projected to reach between US$40 million and US$45 million, with about US$2 million coming from Truly Nuts!. Gareth envisions White Lion Foods expanding to supply a third of the world’s Brazil nuts in the future.

Considering the brand is still relatively young, Gareth sees this as just the beginning. Rather than expanding into new countries all at once, the company plans to grow through travel retail first.

It might sound surprising, but his reasoning is simple: airports give the brand direct access to international travellers, helping build awareness and demand before moving into broader retail markets.

By May, Truly Nuts! aims to go live in about 80 more WHSmith airport outlets across the globe, including Europe and Singapore.

The company is also developing new product lines, with Brazil nut butter seen as having particularly high potential.

Reflecting on the company’s unconventional journey—from DJ tours to running processing facilities in the Amazon—Gareth says entrepreneurship rarely follows a linear path.

“You’ve just got to get going with it,” he said. “As I like to say, you should build the plane while you’re flying.”

Featured Image Credit: Truly Nuts!

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