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Maria Valéria and Maria Rogéria Pereira inherited the farm after their father died and they renamed it Irmãs Pereira – The Pereira Sisters. The farm was established in the early 1970s with 90 hectares of land and has since expanded to 250 hectares of which 120 are planted with coffee. Maria Rogéria’s son Luiz Paulo Dias Pereira Filho is a founding partner in Carmo Coffees – the exporter we work with in this area of Brazil. There has been a lot of innovation across the Carmo farms over the last few years. On Irmãs Pereira, progress has come in the form of trialling different pruning methods and farm regeneration. The pruning schedule is highly detailed and planned with precision. Twenty percent of the farm is pruned every year which means farm productivity is kept within tight parameters. This helps ensure a consistent harvest in terms of quantity and timings, which in turn helps harvest and farm planning. This year the sisters have focussed on planting cover crops in between the aisles of coffee trees. A mix of seeds are sown to cover the (usually bare) soil. These seeds are fast to germinate and spread and when they have grown to a sufficient height, the plants are mulched. This provides a thick layer of organic matter which helps with moisture and nutrient retention in the soil and reduces the risk of soil erosion.