A journey
It all began far from any business plan.
Sam, from Belgium, was travelling the world when he arrived in Rio de Janeiro. That's where he met Marianne — his girlfriend then, his wife today.
Founded on 22 November 2022
A journey.
A meeting.
A new life.
Before there was a factory, there were Sam, Marianne and a choice: to build a life together in Eldorado.
See how it started
“Bananinhas was born where two worlds met.”
Eldorado · Vale do Ribeira
From Belgium to Eldorado
Sam arrived in Brazil in love with Marianne — without knowing exactly what the future would look like. He only knew who he wanted to build it with.
A choice
Love pointed the way to Eldorado.
Sam wanted to stay in Brazil with Marianne. She was direct: to build a life together, he would have to move to Eldorado, in the Vale do Ribeira, in the heart of a banana-growing region. He went.
A region
All around were bananas, knowledge and community.
Marianne's father is a banana grower. Sam immediately saw the potential of what surrounded him, but they chose to keep family and business apart and build something independent, their own way.
The house next door
Two opportunities appeared almost at the same time.
Someone from the region already selling banana chips in Curitiba was looking for a new producer. Almost at the same moment, Sam and Marianne heard the house next door was for sale. They bought it. That's where the factory began.
What Sam brought with him
From hospitality to the factory floor.
Before Bananinhas, Sam worked in Michelin-starred restaurants and French bakeries. More than cooking, he learned organisation, operational discipline, consistency, efficiency and attention to detail.
That European background found its own translation inside a small local factory in Eldorado. It became part of how Bananinhas produces.
Built from scratch
A house became a factory. An opportunity became a company.
The first years brought operational and financial challenges, unexpected problems and a lot of learning. There was also the daily meeting between Sam's Belgian background and a deeply Brazilian, local reality.
Since it was founded on 22 November 2022, Bananinhas has come through that early phase, learned from its own mistakes and reached a steadier base — ready to grow without losing its connection to Eldorado.
Two worlds, one company
Belgium and Brazil meet in Eldorado.
On one side, Europe.
Hospitality culture, restaurants, bakeries, organisation and production discipline.
On the other, Brazil.
Bananas, farming, people, local knowledge, community and the will to build something.
Bananinhas was born exactly where these two worlds meet.
Value in what could be lost
Sustainability is where we started.
Some perfectly good bananas find no place in the traditional market. At Bananinhas they get another life: they become banana chips.
That idea is part of the reason the company exists. Production stays artisanal, close to the resources and the people of the region.
The work now is to keep developing products and ways to make better use of the banana and its by-products, moving closer to an operation with as little waste as possible.
The next chapter
We started small. We grew by learning. Now we're ready to go further.
With Eldorado, the people and the purpose of making better use of every banana still at the centre of the story.