Belém restaurant to earn R$ 40 million — without raising prices during COP30

Amidst COP30, successful Belém, the lines that formed earlier a edifice lone a fewer meters distant from the UN’s clime league became a portion of the scenario. Amazônia na Cuia, from Pará, has attracted delegations, tourists, and locals alike, becoming not lone a model to section gastronomy but besides arsenic a concern lawsuit survey that helps to explicate however COP30 stirred the section economy.

Founded successful 2012 by Rafael Barros, the edifice saw profits summation from R$4 cardinal successful October to a projected R$5 cardinal successful November, boosted by grounds inflows of tourists drawn by the clime conference.

Growth happened without terms tuning, a determination that Barros deemed strategical to sphere the brand’s reputation.

“I was disquieted that tourists would consciousness similar they were being exploited. So, we kept each terms precisely arsenic it is”, says the founder.

Barros, presently 35, has opened his archetypal portion astatine lone 5m², with 1 azygous worker and six plates being sold connected the sidewalk. Before that, helium had been done antithetic occupations and enterprises, from shot fields to nonrecreational Poker, and to a barber shop, to businesses that ne'er took off.

It was aft this rhythm that helium shaped the conception of Amazônia na Cuia, with the thought of uniting gastronomy, determination individuality and tourer experience.

In Amazonian culture, the cuia, a benignant of vessel carved from the bare ammunition of a section fruit, the cuieira, has a cardinal role. More than an utensil, it is simply a awesome of individuality and tradition, reflecting the narration of the section colonisation with the rainforest. The cuia bridges generations and is contiguous successful regular life, cooking, art, and assemblage rituals.

Amazônia na Cuia: the 3rd unit, successful the Marco vicinity of Belém, received investments of R$ 4.5 cardinal (Leandro Fonseca/Exame) (Leandro Fonseca/Exame)

When sanitary restrictions closed disconnected the town, operations migrated to the flat wherever helium lived with his wife. Instead of stopping, helium spent astir a period cooking astatine location and delivering orders to couriers successful the building’s entrance.

This improvisation changed the standard of his business. In the archetypal period aft reopening, profits reached R$ 50.000, astir doubly the magnitude of the erstwhile period.

From past on, the edifice grew accelerated – archetypal into a 20m², onward to a 144m² unit, the acquisition of a neighboring estate, and enlargement until 240 seats were reached. Monthly profits surpassed R$1.6 million.

Today, his web operates a full of 3 units, which adhd up to implicit 2.000m² of built area, with 210 employees and services astir 30 1000 radical per month. This month, with the COP30, the projection rises to 50.000 clients.

The fiscal curve accompanies this jump: successful 2024, Amazônia na Cuia made R$17 million; this year, projections prevarication astatine R$40 million. Over the past 4 years, the mean yearly enlargement was 115%.

The business’s maturation mean surpasses projections for the edifice and barroom segment, wherein estimations are an summation of 6,9% successful 2025, according to the Brasil Foodservice Institute (IFB), aft 3,2% enlargement successful 2024.

The edifice successful COP30

The 3rd unit, successful Bairro bash Marco, Belém, was explicitly planned with COP successful mind. The R$4 cardinal concern – made up by the owner’s ain wealth and a slope loan, the archetypal since the edifice was founded – transformed the abstraction into an cognition with astir 130 employees.

During COP30, Barros stationed translators successful each unit, translated the paper into 5 antithetic languages, and reinforced his teams with freelancers. Still, request remained changeless from noon to midnight.

Restaurant successful Belém: nutrient is served successful a cuia, an utensil that plays a cardinal relation successful Amazonian civilization (Leandro Fonseca/Exame) (Leandro Fonseca/Exame)

According to the founder, the maturation exemplary is supported by 3 pillars: authenticity, patterning, and organizational culture. The proposal, helium says, was ever to instrumentality elements of Amazonian accepted cooking to dishes.

“The edifice positions itself arsenic an Amazon experience, with cautiously built environments made by tourism specialists, artisans, historians, and architects, hand-painted cuias and adjacent a platform with section surviving food species. The cognition is patterned and fast, structured similar an assembly enactment to guarantee agility. The squad receives ceremonial training, with an interior handbook, contented exams, and servicing classes,” helium says.

Now, the program is to crook the edifice into a nationalist and planetary phenomenon. The extremity is to unfastened 10 much units by 2029, with São Paulo, Brasília, and Manaus connected the radar, too Lisboa arsenic an archetypal stake abroad.

Barros dismisses franchises and plans to turn done societies with managers formed wrong the institution itself, including their societal participation.

The main situation volition beryllium to operation the logistics needed to present Amazonian goods caller to different regions. Today, the web consumes 1,5 tons of pirarucu, a autochthonal fish, each month, astir 700kg of filhote, different section food from Belém, and six tons of shrimp, each locally sourced.

“From December onwards, I program to travel, to cognize a fewer regions better, speech to investors, and recognize which are the astir suitable places for an eventual expansion. We cognize that this prime is decisive for the concern to succeed, and this volition beryllium 1 of the main criteria erstwhile deciding what the adjacent steps whitethorn be”, affirms Barros.