I recently traveled to Brazil to visit several coffee producer organizations and friends. I went to Poco Fundo and Nova Resende in Southern Minas, to Lajinha in Eastern Minas and to Venda Nova do Imigrante in Espitito Santo (a lovely town founded by Italian immigrants, many of whom arrived to Brazil to work in coffee in the 1800’s).

Poco Fundo grows one of my favorite coffees from Brazil. I visited COOPFAM http://www.coopfam.com.br/ and spent time with Luis Adauto, president of the co-op. COOPFAM is a good example of how Fair Trade helps coffee producers around the world. Small-farmers members of Poco Fundo have significantly improved their livelihoods in the last 3 years thanks to the improved prices they are receiving for their coffee (Poco Fundo sells most of its coffee as Fair Trade Certified). COOPFAM invests a good portion of their Fair Trade premium in environmental projects. Several U.S. roasters and importers are part of this successful story that is still being written.

In Nova Resende, I visited Coopervitae, a relatively recent coffee co-op formed by small producers and growing in membership every year. Geraldo, from Coopervitae, is one of the nicest persons I have met in Brazil. He is working very hard to improve the livelihoods of small producers in his region and his organization is attracting several new members. I was interviewed in the local radio where I had the chance to talk about Fair Trade and the work we are doing to support small farmers in Nova Resende.

In Lajinha, I visited Coocafe, the biggest Fair Trade Certified co-op in Brazil. Fernando, president of Coocafe, has been actively participating in improving the work that we do in the U.S. to promote Fair Trade Certified coffee. He is part of our coffee advisory council formed by around 10 producer representatives from all over the world. Coocafe is investing in training their members in order to improve coffee quality and in technically assisting their members with improved agricultural techniques. In addition, Coocafe is heavily involved in a financial co-op that provides credit to thousands of coffee producers in the region.

The trip to Espirito Santo and Eastern Minas was very long. Traveling in Brazil can take forever when moving around coffee regions. In Espirito Santo, there is a producer organization called Pronova, that is doing a remarkable work in improving the quality of the coffee produced in the region in order to improve the lives of hundreds of producers. Since this region is not as high as other coffee regions in Brazil, Pronova members semi-wash their coffees in order to improve the cup characteristics (most of the small coffee farmers I visited in Southern Minas process their coffee using the natural method). Pronova is implementing great projects trying to empower women in the region and to improve coffee quality and the environmental practices of their members. Every year, working with the local government and some industry partners, they implement a quality competition that takes into accounts social and environmental aspects (the coffees and the farms are evaluated not only on the characteristics of the cup but also on how the producers implement a set of environmental standards such as the Fair Trade standards). I have not heard of other competitions like this one but I think it is a great example for other regions. Jackie , Pedro and Evair at Pronova are doing an amazing job to improve the lives of coffee producers in their region.

This trip was a great chance to keep learning from several producers about the challenges and opportunities they are facing and to share with some amazing people from one of the most beautiful countries in the world.