SEBASTOPOL, Calif. -- Guayakí Yerba Mate proudly accepts the title of "2024 Mindful Company of the Year" from the Mindful Awards. Approaching 30 years of innovative mission-driven business, Guayakí Yerba Mate is setting the pace for regenerative impact in the North American beverage scene.
A pioneer in organic beverages, Guayakí introduced its loose-leaf mate to natural food shelves in 1996. Today, it is a national brand boasting an impressive 86% market share in yerba mate and 45 SKUs across the US and Canada. The founders' enduring passion for mate and commitment to regenerative agriculture are embodied in Guayakí's Market Driven Regeneration™ business model. This approach aims to create a positive impact across all operations and the entire supply network.
Highlights from Guayakí's Regenerative Business Journey:
- Pioneering regenerative agriculture practices in yerba mate production across Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay through deep, long-standing relationships with local producers and harvesters.
- Achieving numerous firsts in sustainability: one of the first companies to become a B Corp when the certification launched (2007), first to offer fair trade certified yerba mate under the Fair for Life standard (2009), and first to source Regenerative Organic Certified® yerba mate and sugar cane (2022). Guayakí's producers in Argentina and Brazil have proudly achieved Regenerative Organic Certified® Gold level.
- Empowering Indigenous and local farming communities with fair trade premiums and long-term partnerships that incentivize regenerative, shade-grown production practices.
- In 2023, Guayaki's shade-grown yerba mate production areas totaled almost 50,000 acres, over 99% of total production. In addition, more than 80% Guayaki's green leaf yerba mate was harvested from its Regenerative Organic Certified® producers in Brazil and Argentina. The investment underscores Guayakí's commitment to economic stability as well as traditional cultural practices, and conservation and restoration of the critically important Atlantic Forest.
Mindful Awards is an independent recognition platform that honors conscious companies that are mindfully making waves in the world of consumer-packaged goods. The annual product awards, which attracted more than 2,000 nominations from across the globe this year, are selected using a mix of criteria including impact, transparency, innovation, health, deliciousness, and credibility.
