José Favaro - Estância Tijuco Preto

Brazil Specialty Coffee Association

Winning farm of the Brazil Cup of Excellence
Competition and Auction - 2001 edition

José Favaro
Estância Tijuco Preto

Characteristics of the coffee lot:

Processing System: Pulped Natural
The winning lot was from an area of 1.2 hectares
of coffee plantations of the Catuaí variety.
Variety: Catuaí
Lot size: 19 bags
Average score: 83.61

Characteristics of the farm:

Property: Estância Tijuco Preto
E-mail: zeromeu@winf.com.br
Location: Location of Tejupá, region of Piraju,
Southwestern part of the State of São Paulo.
Total area: 78 hectares
Coffee growing area (according to varieties):
Catuaí - 22.2 hectares
Mundo Novo - 10.6 hectares
Acaiá - 2.5 hectares
Obatã - 2.5 hectares

Coffee plantation

The property is located in a region with a long time tradition in coffee plantation. The region has approximately 1,000 coffee producers, in a planted area with approximately 20,000 hectares and an annual production of about 300,000 bags of processed coffee. Recently, processing cherry coffee by the pulped natural method and the creation of the Associação dos Produtores de Café Descascado de Piraju e Região (PROCED - Association of Pulped Natural Coffee Producers of Piraju and Region) caused an increase in the quality of the coffee produced in the region.

The Paranapanema River, one of the cleanest rivers of the State of São Paulo, crosses the city of Piraju. Many falls, tracks and natural reserves characterize the natural avocation of the region for eco-tourism.

Estância Tijuco Preto is at 800 meters high in a gently undulated land. Soils are eminently Latosolic, with some Podzolic. The climate is altitude tropical with average annual rainfalls of 1,800mm.

Environmental preservation is constant at the farm, which has wood reserves in the slopes of the mountains, and preserves water sources and woods near the banks of the rivers. Wild animals include quatis, wild dogs, tatus and birds such as siriemas and jacus. In one of the borders of the property runs the Jacu Stream.

Jacu stream and woods

The property is totally managed by the family, who has a long time tradition as coffee producers, commented José Favaro. "My grandparents were Italian immigrants of the Veneto region. They arrived in Brazil at the end of the 19th century especially to work in the coffee farms of the interior of São Paulo, in the São Carlos region. Later, they moved to Tejupa, at that time a district of Piraju. From the 1928 crisis onwards, my father, Deoclécio Fávaro, together with his brothers, bought the farm in which they worked. In 1975, this property was divided among my five brothers, and I kept the Estância Tijuco Preto. Since the time of my grand parents, coffee has been the main activity in the property. Along the years, modern production techniques were incorporated to the farm and from 1999 onwards, we began processing the coffee by the pulped natural process."

José Fávaro, his wife (at the center) and family

José Romeu (son) in a coffee plantation

Coffee plantation

At 73, José Favaro directly supervises all the activities of the property. Daily, he walks on foot in the plantations to see what is being done. His son, José Romeu Aith Fávaro - Agronomist graduated from the Federal University of Viçosa, and a Master's in Vegetal Physiology at the same university - is responsible for the technical aspects of production. And José Favaro's son in law, João Antonio Garrote, also helps with the daily activities involved in the production.

In addition to coffee production, José Favaro also plants vegetables in protected greenhouses, including tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, red, yellow, cream and purple bell peppers, and cucumbers.

All plantations in Estância Tijuco Preto are made within the strictest techniques without causing any negative impacts to the environment.

coffee plantation / vegetable greenhouses

Coffee plantation - at the back
the vegetable greenhouses

Children in a classroom

With eight registered employees and their family members, a total of 32 persons live in the farm, and directly depend of the property.

The farm has an elementary public school, where the children of the employees and the children of the neighbors can study without having to go to the city.

Coffee processing system:
Mechanical washer that also separates the dry beans washed the coffee of the winning lot. Subsequently, the green beans and the cherry beans were separated. The coffee was dried on fine layers on a brick terrace. No drier was used in the winning lot.

Plantation from where the winning
lot was harvested

Coffee pulper

Drying terrace

Rotary dryer

Vertical dryer

Coffee separator

Quality concerns:
Technical guidance about the crop and the preparation after the crop are provided by José Fávaro's son, José Romeu, Agronomist, and at currently the president of the Association of Pulped Natural Coffee Producers of Piraju and Region (PROCED). "Since PROCED was created lectures and courses on quality became frequent in the region, allowing local producers to constantly improve the care with their plantations and consequently increasing the quality of the final product", commented José Favaro.