{"id":263187,"date":"2019-11-29T07:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T10:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=263187"},"modified":"2019-11-28T19:58:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T22:58:39","slug":"the-forest-is-the-ingredient-for-renewing-brazilian-coffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/the-forest-is-the-ingredient-for-renewing-brazilian-coffee\/","title":{"rendered":"The forest is the ingredient for renewing Brazilian coffee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belo Horizonte \u2013 Brazilian coffee production is known for its huge volume. The National Company of Supply (Conab<\/a>) foresees 49 million bags of coffee only this year. But these priorities have changed and, instead of size, quality has moved up on list. In this pursuit, growers in unusual regions share something: the cultivation with agroforestry techniques.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how growers in Cear\u00e1, a state that is better known for its beaches than crops, restarted their history with the bean. There, plants grow under the shadows of the forest since the early 19th<\/sup> century. \u201cCoffee arrived in Cear\u00e1 before going to the Southeast,\u201d says Francisco Uch\u00f4a (pictured above<\/em>) with S\u00edtio \u00c1guas Finas in the region of Maci\u00e7o do Baturit\u00e9 in a interview with ANBA during the International Coffee Week (ICW<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In the state where this crop was implanted as soon as it arrived in Brazil, coffee went through the last century to its own devices, growing at the Atlantic Forest, but four years ago the Coffee Growers Association of Serra do Baturit\u00e9 (Afloracaf\u00e9<\/a>) was created. \u201cWe met in 2016, here at the show, and founded the association as soon as we went back. Our goal is bringing technologies to our region, which has a very low productivity. We have a very high quality at the tree, but we struggle with processing and storage,\u201d says Frederico Yan, who cultivates in his S\u00edtio Bom Princ\u00edpio farm and is Afloracaf\u00e9 president.<\/p>\n

Although the solution was modernizing processes with training, new varieties, irrigation and nutrition, the decision was respecting ancestral techniques. \u201cWe\u2019re planting as it used to be done, respecting nature, keeping the trees and the shadow, since this is what ensures its quality. Our cost is very high because we don\u2019t want to put a tractor there and then plant. What\u2019s our goal? Produce with minimum environmental impact,\u201d Yan explained.<\/p>\n

He believes that the initiative is also an opportunity to develop the region\u2019s economy. \u201cOur intention is producing good coffee and get an economic return to encourage other growers to not abandon the crop. Most of them are leaving for fruit crops and stripping out the coffee that came back in the 1900s,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>\n

Many native trees with up to 1.5 meter across and 20 meters high offer the coffee shadow and organic matter nutrition. They\u2019re cedars, robles, fig and inga trees. \u201cThe inga\u2019s pollen attracts a wasp that predates on the coffee borer beetle, one of the crop\u2019s main pests,\u201d said Uch\u00f4a, one of the 16 member farmers.<\/p>\n

(The story continues after the photo gallery)<\/em><\/p>\n