FARM – Ipanema Coffees 200 hectares
Region – Sul de Minas ,Minas Gerais – Brazil
One of the leading coffee producers not only Brazil but also the world, Ipanema Coffees, was a pioneer in the production of specialty coffees. Since their first export in 1991 they have gone from strength to strength becoming one of the largest single coffee estates in the world as well as being one of the first fully certified farms in Brazil. To ensure near-by producers were able to also benefit from their success and resources, they began the Equal Partners Program.
The Equal Partners Program is designed for a conglomerate of 6 neighbouring farms that share a similar micro-climate to be able to commercialise their coffees for a premium using the Intellectual Property of Ipanema Coffees. The producers receive assistance from a team of agronomists and technicians at Ipanema throughout the year, and as a result can sell their ripe cherries to Ipanema Coffees for a premium that would be otherwise unobtainable due to their size and lack of penetration in the export market. This has allowed the producers in the program to invest in further facilities such as irrigation and agricultural equipment to improve farm management and productivity.
Ipanema then process the ripe cherries under their quality controls which includes drying, storing and exporting. The combination of the coffee from these Equal Partners is fashioned into the Bossa Nova label. It allows people across the world to enjoy the quality that Ipanema Coffees can guarantee while also supporting smaller nearby producers through sustained development.
Ipanema own three farms responsible for their specialty coffee production; Fazenda Conquista & Capoeirinha located near the Furnas Lake and Fazenda Rio Verde in the Mantiqueira Mountains combining for a total of over 5,000 hectares of coffee production. Due to the flat topography of Fazenda Conquista & Capoeirinha, some of the most advanced farming techniques in the world are used to guarantee quality on such a large scale including; sustainable irrigation, mechanical harvesting and efficient processing infrastructures.
Additionally, from seed to cup Ipanema can provide full traceability from the care of their nursery to production, milling and final shipping of its coffee, thereby guaranteeing consistent quality. This has also driven quality differential through their constant search for improvement in its processing and coffee preparation that extends to the international marketability of their exports. As one of the most important employers in the Sul de Minas, with more than 700 full-time employees and during the harvest increases to 2,000, Ipanema offers a wide range of job opportunities in the field, warehousing, milling, quality management and logistics.