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ORIGINS
The family patriarch is producer Nagipe Viana Klem. Currently 83 years old, he began his work with coffee in the mid-1950s, at a property in the region called “Pedra Dourada”. Today, he has eleven farms around Luisburgo.

Nagipe Viana is an entrepreneur and an innovator, always ahead of his time. He was concerned by environmental issues before it was a mainstream topic.

Over the years, he passed his knowledge to his sons and in 2010 Cesar, Marcio, Sergio and Claudio took over control of coffee production, knowing how to improve everything.

Nagipe Viana’s sons knew how to align their knowledge of producing specialty coffees, inherited from their father, and improving production, bringing new technologies.

Producer Cesar Klem relates that his father “always liked things done well. He always produced very good coffees. However, when he sold them, he couldn’t find buyers who valued the quality they had. Thus, he began looking for alternatives. He took the coffees to Varginha, Minas Gerais, and Santos, Sao Paulo. Since then, he began getting differentiated prices for the quality of the coffees.”

In 2010, when the sons began managing the properties, the started to participate in fairs and noticed that there was a much larger universe for specialty coffees. They invested in pulpers, new patios, more dryers, a greenhouse with African beds and began participating in competitions. “This has yielded results with recognition of our coffees for their quality. The market perceived that we had coffees of differentiated quality, from the elevation, treatment, varieties, and climate that we have. I went to other cities, I took classes and we began to understand the matter of specialty coffees better. We gained access to markets we didn’t know existed,” says Cesar.

ORGANIC AND SPECIALTY
Fazendas Klem’s coffees are today 100% organic and comply with all international social, economic and environmental criteria.

Ce_sar Klem says that in 2010 they decided to begin the transition from conventional coffee to organic. The process takes five years. “In 2016, we managed to get our coffees certified as organic in Brazil, the United States, Europe and this year we will get them certified in Japan, too. Today we can celebrate. We do not simply make organic co ee. We have reached the level of specialty organic coffee.”

For the farms, this is a landmark. Specialty organic co ee is found on very few farms around the world that are able to align the two practices.

In addition to coffee, the Klem family has created an excellent polyculture combination with avocados and bananas that make the fields a harmonious ecosystem. “My father was always very concerned about environmental preservation. We are finishing a project to transform Pedra Dourada into an RPPN (Natural Heritage Reserve), we have always wanted to preserve that natural sanctuary.”

The farms are actually an extension of the Klem family. Cesar says that he does not have employees. “Here on the farm we have partners. There are 45 partner families. Each family has a plot of land that it cares for and receives part of the production. Although we have a lot of land, we use a familial production system. They are our partners in the quality we achieve. They embrace the same ideal planted by our father.”

RECOGNITION
The labor Fazendas Klem also yields results. They are certified USDA Organic by IBD, they have the European organic seal, Organico Brasil, UTZ, Rainforest Alliance Certi ed and Starbucks C.A.F.E. Practices.

In 2014, they achieved 10th place in The best Coffee of The Year Brazil. The following year, 5th place in Best Coffee organized by Nestle Brasil and 7th place in the VII Prova de Cafes Certifcados – Ima ora Rainforest (in 2015 and 2016).

They were finalists in the 25th Ernesto Illy Quality Award for Espresso and in the Fazenda Sustentavel (Sustainable Farm) contest organized by Globo Rural 2016.

Since the beginning of this new phase, making a mark for the brand has been a great concern. Today, Fazendas Klem’s coffee is recognized around the world. “We are proud of our origins, of our family, of our coffee, and we want to bring these coffees to tables worldwide,” Cesar concludes.

For more information

www.fazendasklem.com.br

Coffee processing system: Natural

Concern about quality

This natural coffee comes from the mountaintop “Santos” field, from which one can see the city of Luisburgo in all of its splendor. It is a 100% organic field, polyculture with tropical avocados. The caretaker of this field with excellent results in the cup is partner Edicarlos de Freitas Klem, who lovingly cares for the fields each year. The harvesting process was over cloths, with the cherries at 85% maturation. A pre-cleaning process is used before the cherries go to a vertical dryer. As the lot was small, slow drying was used, taking around 2 weeks to reach 11.5% humidity. After this, the coffee was put in a big bag to stabilize the water molecules and homogenize the coffees aspects, both physical, which isn’t worth much, and in the cup, which is complex, like the soil.

Certifications

UTZ
UTZ_CF1000000571
10 August 2017 - 9 April 2018

RAINFOREST
IMAFLORA -G-000005
29 May 2017 - 28 May 2020

ORGANICO (USDA, CEE, BRASIL)
CA 7859/16 US 3108/16
22 September 2016 - 21 September 2017*

Organic Certification following the global protocol