Global acai brand Oakberry opens first Far North Queensland store in Cairns City

Cairns residents have welcomed the opening of global brand Oakberry Acai’s first Far North franchise to the Esplanade precinct. See the menu.

Oakberry Acai is a new health food eatery at the corner of Cairns Esplanade and Shields Street Mall, exclusively offering acai bowls and smoothies. Eduardo Cavalcante and store manager Matheus Ramos prepare a variety of acai bowls, which have proved popular with health concious locals and tourists. Picture: Brendan Radke

Cairns residents have welcomed the opening of global brand Oakberry Acai’s first Far North franchise to the Esplanade precinct.

The store is serving up acai bowls and smoothies with a selection of local fruit and Australian made toppings.

Franchise owner Matheus Ramos said he had seen great success in the first few weeks of trading.

“Acai itself is growing (in popularity) all over Australia and it’s been very popular in Brazil for years already,” Mr Ramos said.

“We’ve been doing really well, people (have) embraced us.”

“They’re always saying ‘oh we’ve been waiting such a long time for Oakberry to open in Cairns and finally you brought it up here for us so it’s been really nice.”

Oakberry Acai is a new health food eatery at the corner of Cairns Esplanade and Shields Street Mall, exclusively offering acai bowls and smoothies. Eduardo Cavalcante and store manager Matheus Ramos prepare a variety of acai bowls, which have proved popular with health concious locals and tourists. Picture: Brendan Radke

Mr Ramos, who worked in the health sector before taking on the franchise, jumped at the chance of running his own business.

“Oakberry came up as a surprise, it was an individual challenge for me as well, a personal challenge,” he said.

“For the first step into this sort of new world. It was good that we could get together to work with Oakberry because they have all the knowledge, you know.”

Mr Ramos said he was proud to be called ‘fast food’ and stood behind the quality of the Oakberry product.

“A lot of people associate fast food to be something bad for you,” he said.

“You come and stop by and grab your bowl in five minutes and that’s the real definition of fast food, the actual ingredients behind it are really nice,” he added.

“We extract liquid out of the berry and we turn it into this sort of sorbet so it’s full of antioxidants, full of vitamins, minerals, and all those health benefits, and it’s also very tasty.”

The franchise owner also hinted at the possibility of more stores opening in the region.

“Hopefully we’re going to keep growing around the other areas of Far North Queensland, even another in Cairns if everything goes well.”
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Originally published as Global acai brand Oakberry opens first Far North Queensland store in Cairns City