Rio Brilhante Natural IMPACT RFA

Producer Inacio Carlos Urban purchased the first plot of land that became the 2,000+ hectare Fazenda Rio Brilhante in 1984. From those first few trees to today, Inacio has kept innovation and stewardship at the heart of the farm.  

Rather than rest on his laurels as one of the largest farms in the Cerrado, Inacio continues to improve his rigorous quality control methods and strive for excellence in specialty production. Today, the second generation of the family, Inacio’s sons are involved in farm operations. Inacio believes that his sons’ passion for specialty coffee will help steer Fazenda Rio Brilhante towards continued success for decades to come.  

IMPACT verification is the perfect match for Inacio’s search for constant improvement. In addition to its Critical Indicators, IMPACT has 70 improvement indicators for continual improvement overtime. Sucafina’s teams support farmers as they work to meet improvement goals on their farms.  

Inacio named his farm Fazenda Rio Brilhante, meaning “bright river” in honor of the crystal-clear water that feeds his farm. The water originates at the Guarani Aquifer, the second-largest underwater reservoir on the planet. The aquifer runs under much of the Cerrado region and stretches as far as Paraguay and Uruguay.  

Inacio and his sons use a combination of modern technology and age-old agrarian wisdom to manage their farm. Soil content and tree health is tested every quarter and the results inform the application of fertilizers and other inputs. Pruning is conducted approximately every 2 years by trained professionals.  

As part of their drive for innovation, Inacio and his sons are always on the look out for newer varieties, like Arara and Paraiso to introduce. When analyzing which varieties to begin cultivating, they look for a balance of cup quality and disease resistant.  

In addition to the 1,600+ hectares planted with coffee, Inacio has dedicated another 700+ hectares with a combination of cotton, soy, tomato, beans and grazing pasture for cattle.  

Due to their large size, most Brazilian farms are built and equipped for 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, this 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 derricadeira – 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.   

After harvest, cherry is laid to dry in thin layers on a patio for 5 days. While it’s under direct sunlight, cherry is carefully monitored and turned frequently. Then, cherry is dried in a mechanical drum dryer for an additional 4 days. Once dry, cherry is bagged and rested for 40 days before it is transported to the dry mill for processing.  

The Cerrado Mineiro is a mix of grassy savannah, scrublands and forests with a rich biodiversity of over 10,000 plant species and 800 bird species. It is the largest woodland savannah in South America. At over 2 million square kilometers, it’s three times the size of Texas and constitutes 21% of all of Brazil’s land area.  

Since the 1960s, over 40% of the Cerrado Mineiro’s original land mass has been converted into agricultural land. Coffee has been grown in the area for over 40 years and there are now over 3,000 farms, most of which are smallholder plots.  

Cerrado coffee is known for its more pronounced and elegant acidity.  

RFA stands for Rainforest Alliance, a certification system that emphasizes climate-smart agriculture. RFA farms have at least 40% of land covered by canopy, significant species diversity (at least 12 native tree species per hectare, on average) and a system of natural vegetation buffers between agricultural land and bodies of water.  The farms also use organic fertilizers.