article: We drive up the hills in his pickup truck to see farmers harvest the coffee beans in the vast valley around us. Coffee has been the economic backbone of this region - on the border between the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo - for more than a century. But after years of a commodity-fuelled boom, economies like Brazil are having a hard time adjusting to slower global demand and lower prices. Over the decades, the Lacerda family has known fortune and poverty, with their wealth always oscillating around coffee. Droughts, government policies, global consumption, currency problems - these were blessings and curses that determined the fate of the Lacerdas. But in the past five years, farmers in this region are finding new ways to make their own fortunes, trying to move away from producing cheap commodity beans and instead invest in top quality production. Tarcisio drives me to the top of the hill and lets me in on their secret. The valley is filled with coffee trees - but not all of it produces particularly good coffee. In the past, farmers would collect all beans, put them in bags and ship them abroad, getting whatever prices were listed in the commodity markets. Now Tarcisio and his family are separating the best beans - most of which are from trees 1,500 metres above sea level - and producing their own specialty brands. The rest is sold to the market as cheaper, unprocessed green beans. "Usually you double your price - going from commodity to specialty," he says. "A bag of commodity coffee is now worth 450 reais ($110; Â£72) - but we can sell specialty at around 900 or 1000 reais ($220 or $240)," he says. Tarcisio takes me to his neighbour's farm - Forquilha do Rio - which has been winning some of Brazil's top awards for coffee. Their quality has to do with the favourable local conditions - mild temperatures, good sun exposure and high altitude. "We knew our coffee was good, but we had no idea it was this good," says Afonso de Abreu Lacerda (no relation to Tarcisio), in front of a cabinet packed with trophies. "It wasn't until we started competing in awards, about five years ago, that we learned just how valuable it was," he adds. In 2012, when Forquilha do Rio won one of Brazil's top awards, they were able to sell one of their lots for $950 - more than six times the commodity price at the time. They are now exporting their finished brand to China and Japan. The "specialty revolution" is partly the brainchild of Tarcisio's son, 26-year-old Jhone. When he was just 15, Jhone dropped out of school and moved into the family property, determined to learn everything about the coffee trade. With each harvest, father and son experimented with different ways of harvesting, drying up and roasting their product. Jhone designed, built and patented a new coffee drying equipment - which is one of the crucial elements of turning commodity beans into gourmet food. He also became a
summary: As soon as the sun rises in the Caparao Mountains in southeast Brazil, Tarcisio Lacerda takes me on a tour of his property.