Farm Histroy

Fazenda Bela Vista Ltda has been in the Andrade family since 1890, however it was in the mid-forties that Mr. Narciso Ferreira de Andrade, known as "Tapico Bandeira", acquired the plots that belonged to his brothers in the farm. Currently, the farm has 32 houses for its staff that are occupied by the farm's 39 employees and their families. All the houses have running water, electricity generated at the farm, sanitation, and an area for the employees to plant vegetables and fruit for their own consumption.

Employees receive from the farm milk for their daily consumption, and other benefits since the farm's management is concern in extending schooling and health care to its employees and their families. Schooling and health care are coordinated with the Municipality of São Sebastião da Grama local authorities, and are provided free of charge, transportation included.

Since the beginning of its existence, coffee plantation has been the main activity of the farm that diversifies its production with milk and other cultures. It is located in a very favorable area for the production of good quality coffees: an average altitude of 1370m, cold climate and a very fertile soil.

The farm has an area of native woods with approximately 200 hectares, and large animal and plant biodiversity. Fazenda Bela Vista's concern with its native woods environmental preservation includes maintaining about 60 mineral water sources in the property, which are used by the whole farm, including to process coffee.

Coffee processing system

Usually, harvesting begins in May. However due to climatic changes and delays in beans maturation, this year's harvesting began in mid-June. The farm picks and processes the maximum amount of pulped natural cherry beans, to maintain the quality and good characteristics of its coffees.

As it occurred in previous harvests - because of its topography - this year the coffee was picked manually, and generated jobs for approximately 80 individuals from the city and the region, all of them duly registered according to the Brazilian labor and employment laws.

After the coffee lot was picked, the beans were selectively washed, in a mechanical washer, to separate the café-bóia [dry beans of coffee picked directly from the coffee tree] from the cherry beans, and are simultaneously sent to the pulping process, in a modern pulper where the ripe beans are pulped and separated from the green beans. After that phase, and on that same day, coffee is spread uniformly and in very thin layers on a polished concrete terrace, in order to avoid coffee fermentation and for it to dry more homogeneously. The coffee beans were turned over every 20 minutes, that is, 30 times a day. Coffee remains on the terrace for approximately 10 days, until it reaches the ideal humidity level.

In the specific case of the lot sent to the Contest, the mechanical dryer was not used. However, most of the coffee produced in the farm, after a certain period of drying on terraces are sent to the revolving mechanical dryers, which have ecological furnaces, duly designed not to add smoke or substances that might hinder the coffee cup. Coffee is stored in bins made of wood and masonry until the time they are processed at the farm, which has leading edge equipment in this segment.

Concern with quality

Fazenda Bela Vista Ltda. takes a series of measures to produce high quality coffees. It all begins with the acquisition of certified seeds to form the nursery trees in its own greenhouses, duly installed in the property, in order not to stress the nursery trees at the time they are planted in the fields.

The phytosanitary controls of some pests such as "bicho-mineiro" (Perileucoptera coffeella), cercospora (Cercospora coffeicola), coffee blight, etc. are monitored by an agronomist. Special concern is extended to soil preservation, avoiding clearing the ground by fire and deforestations of any type.

Coffee is planted according to the contour lines of the land, after annual soil analyses, soil leveling, organic fertilization, mineral fertilization, intercalated planting of leguminous species, always having in mind adding organic matter to the coffee plantations.

Weeds are strictly controlled in the planting fields.

Last year, after Fazenda Bela Vista was awarded a quality prize during the 6th Cup of Excellence, we are constantly seeking ways to improve the quality of our coffee, because of our large production capacity for gourmet coffees.

Currently, Fazenda Bela Vista is engaged in adapting itself to the property certification standards. It also became a member of the Coffee Growers' Association of the Vale da Grama and of the cooperative Cooxupé - São José do Rio Pardo, which is one of the requirements to take part in the Specialty Coffee Contest of the State of São Paulo, where it is already classified among the finalists.