Called “Brazilian cherry” on the US market, jatoba is one of the key exports from the Brazilian Amazon. It is imported and sold almost entirely as flooring but is also becoming popular in outdoor furniture.

Jatoba is one of the species found by Greenpeace and others working in the Amazon to be a heavily targeted species by illegal loggers in Brazil and the mills that launder the wood (for more on this, see Greenpeace’s report on illegal mahogany logging, “Partners in Mahogany Crime”, the US Appendix of which was authored by Rainforest Relief Director, Tim Keating). Key companies involved in illegal logging and export at the time of the report include Tapajos Timber and Peracchi Exports. Top importers of jatoba from those exporters included DLH, Robinson Lumber and Thompson Mahogany. Bruce Hardwood Floors (an Armstrong company) were top buyers of jatoba from DLH as was Golden State Lumber and Wood Flooring International.