Farm: Fazenda do Salto
Producer: Otávio Reis
Purchasing relationship: 5 years
Region: Carmo da Cachoeira, Sul de Minas, Minas Gerais
Altitude: 1050-1250 masl, 21.5°S
Our Brazil Otavio takes its name from Otávio Reis, who is the farm’s producer in the fifth generation. This is the fifth year we have bought coffee from the farm and we are very impressed by the consistently high quality.
Fazenda Do Salto is a larger farm than most of the farms we buy coffee from. The traditional family business has well-organized structures and experience is passed down from generation to generation. At the same time, the family keeps up with the times and puts an emphasis on innovation and technology in order to produce specialty coffee of the highest quality. This was obvious to us when we visited the farm in late 2024.
The farm employs 50 workers all year round and another 80 temporary workers during the busier time of the year. Many of them also live there. Of the 1700 hectares of farm land, a mere 900 are used for coffee farming. Besides growing some other produce and keeping 150 horses – the family’s other big passion besides coffee, they have reserved 400 hectares of land for forests with native tree species. Around 20 natural water springs can be found on the farm.
Visiting the farm, it became clear that they think about sustainability a lot. Electricity is produced with solar panels, the water used for processing the coffee is from the farm’s own springs and is cleaned and filtered before it is given back to the ecosystem so it does not cause any damage. Besides drying coffee on patios, they also use mechanical, rotative dryers. While regular dryers would be powered by an over underneath, Otávio uses boilers to heat the dryers. This way, one single oven can heat ten dryers, saves them a lot of firewood and makes the process much more efficient and sustainable. Besides, drying is more gentle this way, as the heat is not applied directly and the temperature used for drying is more stable.
Compost is being used, pest control is carried out to a very limited extent and with respect for the environment and nature. Soil is recovered and regenerated by not keeping it uncovered. «Biodiversity is important», Otávio says. The family has held UTZ and Rainforest Alliance certificates for almost 20 years.
Experimenting is important to Otávio and he enthusiastically works with new processing and fermentation methods to produce outstanding coffee. His coffees regularly receive high ratings in regional and national competitions (e.g. the Cup of Excellence) and often even reach the final rounds. At the beginning of every harvest, they do different trials for fermentation processes, bring the samples to a lab and to Otavio’s consultant and then evaluate the results.
