Page 52 - #52 English

Origin
Story and Photos by Maja Wallengren

Brazil’s Coffee Growers, Cashing in

on Sustainable Effi ciency

Since coffee was first introduced to Brazil in 1727 pro- square meters of covered patios for our select micrro lots, but
duction would quickly grow to take on major importance. For 175 we are in the process of expanding that to an area of 4,000 square
years Brazil has been the world’s biggest grower and exporter of meters of covered patios to further increase our offers of micro
coffee and in the last few years the booming local coffee culture lots,” said Edgard Bressani, the Chief Executive Officer of the
has made Brazil the second largest consumer after the U.S. as O’Coffee Brazilian Estates, which is based just outside the town
well. Despite two years with severe drought, producers are do- of Pedregulho in Sao Paulo State.
ing better than many in the market anticipate. And even with a Despite the high level of mechanization applied
small crop, low prices and the complications of climate change throughout the production chain, the coffees here frequently
Brazilian growers continue to defie the odds of how to survive scores between 86 and 88 on the 100-point scale used to grade
with competitive costs, good quality and a quickly expanding and evaluate beans used by the specialty industry across the
share of sustainable coffees. world. And despite the severe drought experienced in Brazil
The smallest of six farms owned by the O’Coffee Estate during the last two crop years the 2015-16 harvest at O’Coffee
group in the Alta Mogiana region in the northern part of Brazil’s has been good.
Sao Paulo State, the Fazendinha - the little farm - only has 160 Row after row of perfectly picked and sorted red and
hectareas of coffee. But here, like at the rest of the 1,000 hectares yellow Arabica cherries are stretched out on both the patio and
spread out on the other five farms owned by O’Coffee, every bean the raised beds for drying. From natural Arabicas, to pulped
is produced according to the highest standards for efficiency and natural, semi and fully washed beans, O’Coffee offers a long range
most modern of cultivation practices. As most things in Brazil’s of different flavor profiles to coffee lovers across the world.
coffee industry, it’s hard for visitors to not get impressed by the “We have 20 different areas with what we call the
sheer size and scale of operations. flavor development plots, all with different varieties being
“This is a 20,000 square meter patio and then we have developed to obtain very specific and custom-made aroma
1,500 square meters of raised African beds and around 400 characters,” said Bressani. Thanks to irrigation, the month-long
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