About This Coffee
Producer José Wagner Ribeiro Junqueira and his wife, Margarida Maria de Castro Junqueira have raised their three sons, Kleber, Ralph and Herbert de Castro Junqueira on their family coffee farm in Carmo de Minas. The Junqueira family have been successful farmers for eight generations. Their farm, Fazenda Serra das Três Barras, covers 175 hectares, of which, 160 hectares are devoted to coffee cultivation.
Cultivation
Serra da Mantiqueira is well suited for coffee cultivation. Fertile soils, mountainous elevation and high well-defined seasons with annual rainfall, have made the region an easy choice for generations of farming families.
José Wagner receives technical assistance from COCARIVE (Cooperativa Reg Cafeicultores Vale do Rio Verde Ltda). The farm employs 8 full time employees and an additional 30 workers at harvest to help operate and maintain the farm.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Cherry is selectively handpicked. Cloth is spread beneath the trees to prevent falling cherry from getting dirtied or discarded on the soil below. Cherry is immediately brought to the drying patios and laid to sundry in a single layer. Depending on the weather, cherry may complete drying in a rotating dryer. Dried cherry rests for 1 to 2 months and is then delivered to COCARIVE’s warehouse to be analyzed and prepared for export.
About COCARIVE
Sucafina has partnered with COCARIVE since 2015.
COCARIVE gives support to its members in all parts of the production chain. Their team of agronomists and technical experts assists with cultivation techniques, machinery, storage and finally commercialization of the beans.
Once parchment is dry, cooperative members send their coffee to the COCARIVE warehouses. The cooperative takes care of grading, commercialization and export. They have their own quality lab and storage and milling facilities in Carmo de Minas.
At the dry mill, where they prepare the coffee for export, COCARIVE has its own laboratory for quality control. Their team of trained cuppers and Q graders makes the first selection based on cup quality. They will verify which lots are suitable and of high enough cup quality for specialty microlots. Their quality control team checks the quality of every lot at a variety of times throughout the dry milling process analyzing both physical green and cup characteristics.
All COCARIVE member farms have the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) certificate. On top of that, they are all certified by the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA). This certificate is a guarantee from BSCA that every aspect of labor at the farm is legal. It also guarantees the implementation of environmentally friendly practices on the farm during all steps of the coffee production process.
Coffee in Brazil
Just under 40% of all coffee in the world is produced in Brazil - around 3.7 million metric tons annually. With so much coffee produced, it’s no wonder that the country produces a wide range of qualities. Brazil produces everything from natural Robusta, to the neutral and mild Santos screen 17/18, to the distinctive Rio Minas 17/18. In recent years, Brazilian producers have also begun investing more heavily in specialty coffee production. Through our in-country partners in Brazil, including our sister company, we are able to provide a wide range of Brazilian coffees to our clients: from macrolot to microlot.
Today, the most prolific coffee growing regions of Brazil are Espirito Santo, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Bahia. Most Brazilian coffee is grown on large farms that are built and equipped for maximizing production output through mechanical harvesting and processing. The relatively flat landscape across many of Brazil’s coffee regions combined with high minimum wages has led most farms to opt for this type of mechanical harvesting over selective hand-picking.
In the past, mechanization meant that strip-picking was the norm; however, today’s mechanical harvesters are increasingly sensitive, meaning that farms can harvest only fully ripe cherries at each pass, which is good news for specialty-oriented producers.
In many cases and on less level sections of farms, a mixed form of ‘manual mechanized’ harvesting may be used, where ripe coffee is picked using a derriçadeira – a sort of mechanized rake that uses vibration to harvest ripe cherry. A tarp is spanned between coffee trees to capture the cherry as it falls.
With the aid of these newer, more selective technologies, there’s a growing number of farms who are increasingly concerned with – and able to deliver - cup quality.