In 1954, Mariana de Carvalho Junqueira received this property as an inheritance from her parents. She believed in coffee growing as did her father years before, and expanded the coffee plantation area investing in the required equipment and infrastructure for processing after the harvest, such as coffee washer, pulper and drier; concrete terraces to dry the product; bins for the coffee to rest and for storage; and equipment for final processing.

Rancho São Benedito is managed by one of her children, Márcio Heleno de Carvalho Junqueira, who receives technical assistance from the agronomists of Procafé, of Emater and of Cocarive in managing the plantations. The nursery trees are certified and were planted following the contour curves, in order to preserve the soil. Further to coffee growing and banana plantations, another activity of the farm is raising horses of the manga-larga marchador breed.

The farm is in a mild climate region, with 1,700mm of rainfalls a year, and at an altitude between 930 and 1,320 meters. Further to maintaining the environmental preservation areas, where there are native vegetal species and wild animals, the owners protect the property’s watercourses, riparian forests and water sources.

Rancho São Benedito has twenty employees registered according to Brazilian employment and labor laws, and the number of employees is much larger at harvesting times. The property borders with the streets of the town, where the employees have their own houses, receive medical care and have a leisure area. Their children go to a municipal public school.

Coffee processing system

Coffee is harvested selectively and manually, strip picked on cloth, because of the rough topography. The picked beans are washed in a mechanical washer with drinking water on the same day. The water used in the washers and pulpers is recycled, and is transferred to the decantation tanks to save water and for environmental preservation.

The pulped cherry beans are taken to the concrete terraces and spread in thin layers, for the coffee not to lose its cup properties. To obtain good quality coffees, the beans are dried under the sun and in a rotary drier, and once the coffee has reached the ideal humidity level, it is transferred to bins lined with wood to rest, where the beans stay for some days until final processing, bagging, and then they are delivered to be stored in Cooperativa COCARIVE, in Carmo de Minas, where it is traded.

Concern with quality

Plantations are environmentally sustained, in order to leave an environment equal or better than today’s for the future generations. The owners are always concerned with quality, selecting the best nursery trees and the best land, in order to produce coffees with good body and sweetness.

Rancho São Benedito’s goal is to constantly improve the quality of the coffees produced in the farm. Its owners attend meetings, lectures and visit other properties to learn more about new technologies to improve quality.

The constant concern with quality has brought rewards to Rancho São Benedito, in 2002 and 2003 when it was one of the finalists of the Brazil Cup of Excellence, and in 2005 and 2006 when the farm was among the finalists of the Coffee Quality Competition of the State of Minas Gerais.