Rural producer Elma Rosa Correa Franco, 69, decided to conduct a test with a portion of the special coffee harvested from her family’s property, in Campestre (MG), and began to take an interest in the entire process involved in growing coffee, from planting until it reaches consumers’ cups. The result: revenue generated per bag increased by 50%, and today its branded coffee reaches buyers across the country.
The “discovery” of small producers that the price of a bag of specialty coffee can bring additional income compared to traditional beans and the strong appreciation that the crop has enjoyed in recent years have motivated coffee farmers to invest in their own roasters or in partnerships in the interior of Minas Gerais.
Located in the volcanic region, which includes parts of southern Minas Gerais and Mogiana São Paulo, this family-owned property covers approximately 30 hectares dedicated to premium coffee and has become a place for drying, resting, processing, reprocessing and roasting, all the way to the Rosa Franco brand.
“I prepare them myself, according to each coffee’s standards. Because each coffee, even though it’s from the same terroir, you can feel a different signal, a lot of variation. So I prepare it for my sample roaster to find out the ideal roasting curve for each one,” he said.
At the moment, the total allocation for the production of the label itself is small, ten bags, but it is enough to show how profitable the initiative is compared to selling green coffee. Ilma took her brand to SIC (International Coffee Week), in Belo Horizonte, and sold a 500-gram package for R$50, which translates to R$100 per kilo.
She sells a 60-kg bag of green coffee for R$3,300. With this same bag, when roasting, 50 kilograms are used, depending on the producer, which is enough to produce about R$5,000.
“By roasting and selling the roast, we gain more value. Demand was very high for my coffee, because everyone was looking for it, which encouraged people to roast.”
Data from Sipri Minas shows that the state had 863 coffee roasting and grinding companies in October, of which 728 were small companies. Of this total, about 50 schools were opened between January and August this year, 48% more than in the same period the previous year.
Another prominent Minas Gerais region in this sector is Mantequera de Minas, with about 8,000 producers in municipalities such as Carmo de Minas, São Gonçalo do Sabucay and Santa Rita do Sabucay, which has characteristics of elevations of more than a thousand metres, favorable soil and a temperate climate, characteristics that contribute to its special topography.
Overall, it’s a floral, citrus and fruity coffee, with a creamy body, hints of caramel and chocolate, and a long finish.
And in São Gonçalo do Sabucay, producer Wheeler Arantes has teamed up with a small roasting company to launch his own brand, Aroma da Serra, produced on 45 hectares dedicated to coffee on the property, which is 1,200 meters above sea level.
Annual production is about a thousand bags per crop, and at the moment, only the special small plots (containing at least 84 points) are intended for roasting. In his case, 15 sachets per crop, sold in 500g packages.
The difficulty for small roasters like Ilma and Willer is distribution on a large scale, which is why they choose to dedicate only a portion of their production to the practice.
“We continue to sell green coffee, and some coffees are even exported,” he said. “But we decided to create the Aroma da Sera brand to showcase our coffee mainly to the public in the city and its surroundings. People in the city have no idea that the product goes to so many places. There are a lot of foreigners who go there to visit and have no idea.” Each package costs R$60.
With the losses resulting from the production process, each bag generates R$6,000 for the product, a value that reduces to R$5,000 with the costs involved.
“Eventually, the value of the roast becomes much higher. A regular bag costs about R$2,300, and a special bag costs between R$2,800 and R$3,000.”
Ivan Figueiredo, an analyst at Sipri Minas in the southern region, said that the producers involved in their roasting processes were able to give these coffees nuances.
“The care he takes in this area is to transfer it to the roasting. In a way, he works directly with the end consumer, who highly appreciates specialty coffees, of high quality, and of original ones with special flavours. With this, the producer, in the roasting plant, by roasting and grinding his coffee for the end consumer, or in cafés and shops, can dedicate himself to having a more special coffee, defining his tone, making it more specific to what he really wants. To deliver it to the consumer.”
The aggravation of this phenomenon is also visible in a survey conducted by Abic (Brazilian Coffee Industry Association), which showed that 82% of industries in this sector are nano (up to 5 bags / month), micro (6 to 50 bags / month) or micro (51 to 1000 bags / month).
Celerio Inacio da Silva, CEO of Abic, said coffee has seen big changes in the past decade, when some regions began to differentiate themselves according to their region.
“Specialty coffee has to offer traceability, sustainability and have sensory notes that match that raw material,” he said. “These small producers have a small production, and they know that even if they have 10 hectares, they will produce one hectare or 1.5 hectares of that great coffee. They want to be proud to say that they have produced and brought to this coffee all its history, how it is made, the family, because they are there.”
In the CEO’s assessment, the consumer “has clearly demonstrated” that they want a story. “When you put in the consumer they’re looking for and the product they’re offering, which is a small industrial, you start to get this traffic that we have.”
SIC brought together 27 thousand people from 33 countries and generated about R$ 150 million in business.