Fazenda Rio Verde is located in the heart of the Mantiqueira mountains, near the city of Conceição do Rio Verde. The farm has enormous areas of forests, springs and waterfalls such that protecting and conserving the ecosystem is of great importance to the company. There are 900 hectares of preserved areas, 51 springs and waterways and 650 hectares of coffee. It’s a true sanctuary! The history of the farm dates to 1870 when Antonio Fachardo Junqueira married Gabriella Augusta and inherited the farm as a dowry. Starting then, they began to run the property and build a main house. There are records of the first coffee plantations on the property dating to 1887. In 1920, the Junqueira grandson, Antenor, took over management of the farm and began an innovative process in coffee production with the separation by quality and color and the construction of brick patios to improve the drying process. During the period between World War I and the Crisis of 1929, the farm went through great difficulties and to deal with them, became self-sufficient in the production of flour, cachaça, sweets and jams, beef, chicken, pork, wool, and various herbs and vegetables. In 1964, Antenor’s son-in-law, Luiz Cyrillo Fernandes assumed control of the farm and continued the innovations, building new infrastructure for wet and dry processing and milling of the coffees. He also invested in an intense soil fertilization program with 800 tons of organic fertilizer from chickens on the farm itself. This program ran from 1964 to 1992. Fernandes was the head of the farm until 2008 when he sold it to Ipanema Coffees. Ipanema Coffees was created in 1969 by Luiz Cyrillo Fernandes and two other partners. Since its founding, the company’s DNA has incorporated much of Fazenda Rio Verde’s founding family’s legacy. To this day this legacy is preserved in the company’s actions and thinking.