About us
Family owned
The Santana farm was acquired in 2009 by the Farias Santos family, entrepreneurs who had businesses in nearby Campinas and Sao Paulo and had focused mainly on construction equipment businesses in the past. The coffee farm presented a unique challenge to the family, as it had been operational but was lacking in efficiencies and productivity. The average age of the coffee plants was 30 years old and the infrastructure required that the harvest be done manually which resulted in unnecessarily high labor costs. At the end of each harvest, the revenue obtained from the sale of coffee beans was not sufficient to cover the cost incurred by the whole harvest process.
To sustain the farm and livelihood of nearby farmworkers, a dramatic change was needed and the plantation renovation process began at the end of 2011. This process began with a complete reorganization of the farm involving the formation of a new plot layout so that the harvest could be carried out mechanically and planting of 450,000 Yellow Catucaí and Yellow Bourbon coffee seedlings. To increase productivity further, irrigation pivots were implemented that would provide needed irritation to 90% of the crop, using the water supply from the natural mineral water sources and lakes on the land. The irrigation is critical so that the crop does not rely on rainwater and received consistent irrigation even in times of drought. Beyond the improvements to the land, the coffee drying yards were renovated and major investments were made in new equipment and facilities including a granary, water treatment facility and construction of a 750 m² post-harvest storage shed.
