A (GA)n microsatellite-enriched library was constructed and a new set of 18 nuclear simple sequence repeat loci was isolated in Bactris gasipaes var. gasipaes. The loci were found to be highly variable in the target species and readily transferable to related Bactris species as well as to the Astrocaryum and Elaeis genera of the same Cocoeae tribe. These microsatellite resources are made available to study the genetic diversity and gene flow within the Bactris complex for a better understanding of the domestication process of the peach palm and for further Cocoeae genetics.