The over 100 years history of tradition in cultivating coffee in Carmo de Minas, south Minas Gerais, is mingled with the history of FAZENDA DO SERTÃO. The first farm to have a coffee plantation in the region, FAZENDA DO SERTAO lends is name to the SERTÃO GROUP. Inherited by José Isidro Pereira and Nazareth Dias Pereira, and currently managed by their children and sons-in-law, the farm is part of a group that has other properties, among which the Santa Inês, São Benedito and São José farms, the three first finalists of the 2005 Cup of Excellence Competition. It is a record that will remain in the history of the competition and of the SERTÃO GROUP.

Well known for its mineral water springs, the Mantinqueira Mountain Range region where FAZENDA DO SERTÃO is located has a perfect combination of factors such as climate, soil and high altitude. Those factors plus the owner’s and managers’ love for coffee cultivation, guarantee the production of fine coffees with good body, with typical characteristics, intense sweetness and average to high acidity, in which citric acidity predominates. The regional economy is based on agriculture and livestock, and coffee plantations are responsible for more than 50% of the jobs and revenues.

Thirty-four families of employees reside in houses that belong to the farm, at no cost. All the houses have running drinking water and electricity, and the employees receive in addition to their salaries, milk, coffee, transportation and medicines.

There is a municipal public school in the farm. FAZENDA DO SERTÃO is also included in the Family Health Program maintained by the government. Furthermore, there is a telephone line for the employees, a soccer/multi-sport field and a fish-farming reservoir, where they can fish.

Water is recycled in the washing and pulping stages, therefore allowing a more rational use of this resource. The residues are transferred to decantation tanks to preserve the environment. The farm has a native rain forest, and the forests around the various water sources and creeks are also preserved.

Coffee processing system

The coffee of Fazenda do Sertão is picked manually, because of the topography of the farm, and on cloth for the beans not to touch the soil. The coffee is transferred twice a day from where it was picked to the processing structure, where the beans are washed, pulped and spread on terraces on that same day.

Subsequently, the beans are transferred to the driers, and from the driers to the bins where they will rest for a while and then return to the driers until they reach 10.5% humidity level, at which time they are transferred to the finishing bins to rest for 30 days. Lastly, they are cleaned and bagged and deposited in the Cooperative, where their final classification is made. All coffee lots are traceable from the tree to storage, with detailed information on the processes used.

Concern with quality

With a leading-edge infrastructure, FAZENDA DO SERTÃO is concerned in continuously improving the quality control of the Arabica coffees it produces, aiming at offering the best cups to its consumers.

Mrs. Nazareth Dias Pereira is a member of APROCAM, an association that gives priority to the production and commercialization of specialty coffees (www.aprocam.com.br), and a member of the COCARIVE cooperative (www.cocarive.com.br).

FAZENDA DO SERTÃO is a finalist for the fourth time in the BRAZIL CUP OF EXCELLENCE COMPETITION.