Thanks to the Association of which we at Ernani are members, namely the IWCA Italy (International Women’s Coffee Alliance, Italian chapter) I had the incredible opportunity to visit coffee plantations for the first time.
As our first destination, we selected Brazil, with which we have established a great relationship of mutual trust and collaboration over the years. In particular with the Cafè de Rosa project, part of the Brazilian women’s alliance, set up by Flavia and Gustavo and their coffee export company Arara coffee.
Flavia and Gustavo were also our incredible guides for the entire week we spent travelling around the plantations. From the first moment, they proved to be welcoming and extraordinary people, with an immense heart and an unbridled passion for this world.
Their primary mission is to make growers strong, educated and knowledgeable, so that they get proper recognition for their hard work.
Here they are:
The last two people pictured on the right
In the six days we spent together discovering the Minas Gerais region, known for the high quality of the coffees produced, I was able to better understand the entire production process and consequently the entire coffee chain.
To sum up: it was an experience full of strong emotions, made of scents, colours and people.
The stages
We departed from Milan to land in São Paulo, from there we immediately got into the car, heading towards Santa Rita de Cassia, Sapucai City for our first stop at the Agrorigem testing laboratory run by all the women of the second generation of farmers.
Towards evening we arrived in Santa Antonio do Amparo City to visit the Peixoto family farm.
The next morning we arrived at Divisa Farm near Olivera City, and then moved to Luiza’s Trunk Tapera Farm in the afternoon, near Boa Esperanca, a beautiful lakeside town.
On the third day, we spent wonderful hours in the company of Maria Helena, owner of Cafe Especial Brunelli, in Ingaì City.
After a day’s rest, we then left for the world’s largest cooperative in the coffee sector, to find out more about the big companies and their modus operandi. Guaxupe showed us every single step regarding the analyses carried out on the raw coffees before export and all the parameters for sorting the beans into batches, each with its own characteristics.
Finally, on the sixth day we concluded our road trip from Lais of Nossa Senora Das Gracas and Eldorado plantation to Ibiraci City.
Luiza and Trunk Tapera Farm
Today I want to introduce you to one of the incredible women coffee growers we met: Luiza Oliveira.
Luiza, pictured in the centre with the pink T-shirt, is one of the leading figures in quality coffee in Brazil, as well as an expert agronomist and founder of the roasted coffee brand Tapera do Baù.
His plantation, the Trunk Tapera Farm, is located in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil, five minutes’ drive from the pretty town of Boa Esperanca, at an altitude of 1000m.
Luiza calls herself the ‘coffee plant nutritionist’.
With a bachelor’s degree in agronomy, a two-year master’s degree for specialisation in the coffee sector and a further five-year doctorate for ‘Doctor of Coffee Agronomy’, Luiza now grows his own coffees, both specialty coffee and good and fine cup.
Biology and biochemistry now have no more secrets for her, and after years of study she has found the right 100% natural food’ to provide her plants with as fertiliser, bringing precisely those elements that are most lacking in the soil and which the plants could not otherwise take up.
Specifically, he noted that the molecule that contributes to the sweeter sensations in coffee that is then extracted is more easily transported from the leaves to the fruit when there is a high potassium content in the soil.
In fact, his coffees are always very amiable.
She is also one of Brazil’s leading agronomists, called in as a consultant to the largest and most prestigious raw grain companies.
Its role in the sector
As soon as we arrived, Luiza and his family welcomed us with all the typical dishes of their region, combined with the inviting aroma of filter coffee, at a beautiful sunset view picnic set up among the rows of coffee plants.
We then asked her why she had decided to join IWCA and what she would like to see improved in this area.
She replied:
‘We are often underestimated or not considered simply because we are women’
In fact, after all the study and experience she has accumulated, in the eyes of her colleagues, most of whom are men, it is not enough for her to be considered a professional in the field, or rather to be perceived as such. She always has to prove her worth more than she has to, just to be able to overcome the initial hurdle and gain confidence in the plantations in which she advises.
‘When they see me coming they think I am the assistant or secretary, because a woman cannot work in the fields… according to them’. ‘This is a man’s job,’ they say. Or even: ‘What do you think you are teaching me that you will never set foot on a plantation’.
This continuous debasement and non-recognition of the skills and experience a woman may have is demotivating.
And it is precisely on this that we together with the IWCA want to intervene, to make the sector fair and equitable, where each worker is rewarded according to his or her qualities and techniques, eliminating gender differentiation.
Beyond coffee
Having finished this first, more institutional moment, we moved instead to the plantation house, where we would sleep the night.
There a beautiful bonfire awaited us with many delicacies and even Brazilian wine!
We can only be grateful for this incredible and almost unique hospitality, for their willingness to tell us about themselves and let us discover their world, with the pros and cons that entails.
We talked a lot, exchanging experiences and personal experiences, as well as the differences between Italy and Brazil. Thanks to them, we now know a little more about this product that unites us and binds us across the borders of states and continents.
This is what Luiza writes about our meeting:
‘Thank you so much Flavia and Gustavo for including the Tapera do Baú farm in this experience and thank you to the guys from Italy who I already consider my friends for the great connection of ideas and values we had!’
‘Thank you very much Flavia and Gustavo for involving the Trunk Tapera farm in this experience and thank you to the group of Italian guys, whom I already consider my friends, for the connection of ideas and values we had!’
Thanks
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