CONAKOM São Paulo: My Presentation

I delivered the closing presentation at CONACOM (Conferência Nacional de Produtores de Kombucha) on Friday, October 16. Titled ‘An overview of the global kombucha industry,’ I shared data from the Booch News Worldwide Directory that tracked the growth of the industry as measured by social media presence. Since this industry is not required to report sales, it’s one measure (perhaps the ONLY measure) of global trends.

Copies of the complete presentation, including speaker notes in English and Portuguese are available for download.

Selected slides

The link to the Worldwide Directory is found on the top left corner of the Booch News home page. Each December, I collect data on social media activity for each of the worldwide accounts. In this presentation I’ll be sharing 2025 numbers. This December I’ll be collecting 2026 numbers. At the end of 2025 there were 2,585 kombucha brands in the Worldwide Directory. Of these, 90% had an Instagram account (I sometimes wonder why 258 have not chosen to open an account!) 60% have a Facebook account and just under half have a web page. Brazil ranks second worldwide in the number of kombucha companies. It has been in the number two position for many years. This is a surprise to almost everyone in the United States, when  I ask, “Which country has the most kombucha brewers after the USA?” No one guesses Brazil!

This updated map  from the Spring 2022 SYMBIOSIS Magazine showed the growth over the two years since the previous article. Divide the percentage in half to get an approximate annual increase. Over 24% per annum in Latin America, but only 6% in North America. South East Asia was growing the fastest during this period.

For 2025, the last year for which I have numbers, there is a steady 9% increase in the number of brands (both active and inactive) worldwide. So, although these numbers include a large number of inactive brands, they show where relative growth is occurring in different regions over time.

I sliced and diced the numbers in this table, ranking the top 30 countries by number of 2025 brands (both active and inactive) in a number of slides. Highlights include that Italy led in percentage growth in 2024, the year that a gourmet magazine announced The Year of Kombucha.

Switching from overall country numbers to brand size measured by Instagram followers, I cited a post by Spain’s market leader, Komvida, as validation. Their pie chart showed a 57% market share in 2022, followed by an unnamed second-place brand with 13%, and so on down the line.

The number of followers of the market leader, Komvida, and smaller brands in Spain closely matches the sales percentages shown in the pie chart. Proof that measurements of social media presence correspond to sales, at least in Spain.

These are the top 20 “pure-play” kombucha brands (specializing exclusively in the category), ranked by follower count as of December 2025. The right-hand column shows the 2024 ranking. In terms of follower count, GT’s is the consistent leader, as one would expect from the brand that created the category. More than half are based outside the US. Six brands are from Brazil, two from Spain, and others are from Australia, Colombia, Canada, Portugal, and Chile.

These are last week’s Instagram figures. Pod Kombucha has gained 45,000 followers since last December, clearly establishing itself as the leading brand on social media. You can see that as well as the number of Followers, I also list the number of Posts that were created in 2025. I lreport in more detail in the January 2026 analysis on Booch News. I also look at regional distribution and Facebook numbers. You might be interested to know that of the 19 brands worldwide with more than 3,000 posts, one is in Brazil: Kombucha da Cá.

In many countries there are clearly a few ‘leading brands’ as measured by the number of Instagram Followers. Since Pod Kombucha added Followers, Brazil now has one leader. Colombia and Chile also have one on social media (although I saw more Tao Kombucha in the stores, which was the first commercial brand in the country.)   In Denmark, there are two.  Canada has three. In the USA, four brands lead (GTs, Juneshine, Heath-Ade, and Humm). After that, in all these countries, there is a ‘long tail’ where other brands have a small number relative to the leaders.

But, all the numbers I have shared come with a warning. Since my directory lists any brand with an online presence, the counts are inflated. In fact, only 1,033 Brands updated Instagram in Q4 2025 (out of 2,584 in the Directory with an Instagram account). There were just 31% accounts in Brazil that were active on social media:  132 of the 423 accounts listed in the Worldwide Directory. They might have gone out of business, or are perhaps just too busy brewing ‘booch to spend time posting updates.

I ended my talk on a high note by playing the cover version of the English-language hit song Our Fermented Future (by the Arcata, California duo Finn Sutherland and River Pember). It’s a love song to a SCOBY. The Booch News Music Playlist now includes música caipira artist Marina do Sertão singing her Brazilian Portuguese version titled O Nosso Futuro Fermentado. Marina had planned to attend the conference and perform in person, but she has been unable to travel since falling off her horse in a cavalgadas last month. The audience cheered.

Meu bem, chega mais pra pertinho, vem brindar junto de mim,
Esse SCOBY foi da vovó, que cuidou dele até o fim.
Na varanda ao entardecer, vendo os vagalumes bailar,
Tua mão na minha, amor… kombucha pra namorar.

Dizem que vinho e flores fazem o amor acontecer,
Mas foi tua kombucha que me fez enlouquecer.
Fermentando o coração, ninguém falou mais verdade,
Teu SCOBY mora comigo… na cama e na saudade.

Vamos unir nossos SCOBYs, fazer dos dois um só,
Como culturas no pote, fermentando ao sol sem dó.
Teu Lactobacillus tem o sabor que eu procurei,
Teu Brettanomyces me lembra o amor que encontrei.

Vem unir nossos SCOBYs, amor, faz dos dois um coração,
Teu fermento e o meu seguindo na mesma direção.
Tu tens o ácido acético, eu tenho tempo e devoção,
Vamos borbulhar juntinhos, misturando a nossa paixão.

Tenho essa sensação de simbiose, tão bonito e tão real,
Teu SCOBY mora no peito, meu carinho sem igual.
Teu Acetobacter faz do doce um bem maior,
Como fizeste da minha vida um caminho bem melhor.

Vem unir nossos SCOBYs, deixa o tempo trabalhar,
Como o chá vira kombucha, nosso amor vai transformar.
Borbulhando lado a lado, cada dia um novo amanhecer,
Na varanda da fazenda, eu e você até envelhecer.

É o nosso futuro fermentado…
É o nosso futuro fermentado…
É o nosso futuro fermentado...