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Overview

Located in the Municipality of Paraisopolis, in south Minas Gerais, Fazenda Santa Terezinha is becoming famous for the quality of the coffees it brought to previous editions of the Cup of Excellence Competition, fetching the first prize in 2001, the third in 2002 and the 23rd in 2005. Fazenda Santa Terezinha has been in the hands of the Almeida family since 1915. The property has excellent quality soils, adequate climate and an altitude of 1,110 meters. It is managed by Agronomist Paulo Sergio de Almeida and his brothers Celso de Almeida and Helder de Almeida. The whole coffee plantations have been organically cultivated for the last six years, and have the IBD certificate, with the export seal for Europe, Japan and the United States. In addition to coffee, the farm exploits the activities of cattle for milk, pigs and sugarcane for forage. All the resulting residues are used to make organic compost to fertilize the coffee plantations and other cultures, since in an organic production no chemical fertilizer or pesticides are used. The 25 permanent employees of the farm collaborate to the good operating conditions of those activities and to the production of high quality organic coffees; they receive salaries above the average for the region, plus other benefits.

Coffee processing system

Coffee is picked manually and selectively, and the ripe beans are strip picked on cloth, to avoid any contact with the soil, and are separated by planting field and variety. The recently picked coffee is pulped and immediately after placed in the suspended and covered terrace, where the beans remain until completely dried.  Concern with quality Owners and employees of Fazenda Santa Terezinha are constantly looking for the best possible results, from managing their plantations until the coffee is ready to be sold, always respecting environmental preservation when taking advantage of the natural characteristics the property offers, such as altitude, mild climate and high fertility soils, handled organically using biomass and composting. Investments were made to improve the beans drying phase by building suspended and covered terraces, and the farm receives visitors from many regions of Brazil and from abroad. They usually are producers, technicians, students and importers who want to learn about the techniques that are used in the farm, acknowledged in 2005 with a US$10,000.00 prize that it received from its U.S. importer for the excellent work done.