Among Brazil’s Rocky Hills, Azeite Pedregais Cultivates Award-Winning Olive Oils

Summary

Azeite Pedregais in Brazil’s Serra do Sudeste pro­duces award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oils using unique rocky ter­rain. The farm, owned by Flavo Fernandes and Mirella Meirelles, uses diverse cul­ti­vars and sus­tain­able prac­tices, with plans to expand into oleo­tourism to pro­mote olive oil and local goods in the region.

Some of the finest olive oils in the world are crafted in Brazil among the pedregais—the dis­tinc­tive rocky out­crops ris­ing from the land­scape of the beau­ti­ful Serra do Sudeste in the south­ern­most part of Rio Grande do Sul.

This ancient plateau, more than 400 meters above sea level, is home to Azeite Pedregais’ award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oils.

The company’s extra vir­gin olive oils earned two more awards at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, Southern Hemisphere edi­tion. In just the past four years, Azeite Pedregais has received eleven awards in New York — nine of them Gold.

“Ours is a won­der­ful land­scape; its for­ma­tion dates back to the Precambrian period, 4.6 bil­lion years ago. It used to be a plateau that has been eroded over time,” said Flavo Fernandes, co-owner of Azeite Pedregais, in an inter­view with Olive Oil Times.

“Therefore, our soil is stony and granitic, which favors drainage. Our plant­ing areas are located on gen­tly slop­ing hill­sides, and we still pre­serve many forested areas sur­round­ing the olive groves,” he added.

Fernandes and his wife, Mirella Meirelles — both physi­cians — came to olive farm­ing out of a desire to recon­nect with nature after an intern­ship in Salamanca, Spain, where they learned more about olive oil.

In 2017, the cou­ple found a suit­able area to plant their olive trees, select­ing vari­eties known for resilience and pro­duc­tion qual­ity. ​“We also took a chance on two cul­ti­vars that were not very com­mon, Frantoio and Manzanilla, and did not plant Arbosana, which here requires a lot of care and suf­fers from humid­ity,” Fernandes explained. ​“In this area, humid­ity can become quite intense at cer­tain times of the year.”

Over time, their olive farm­ing activ­i­ties expanded across three dis­tinct areas, each requir­ing a spe­cific approach to cul­ti­va­tion and enrich­ing the diver­sity of pro­duc­tion. Some of those groves are still in early stages of devel­op­ment.

“The first, main grove, which we call Pioneiro (‘Pioneer’ in Portuguese), was planted using a ridge sys­tem where the trees are raised above ground level,” Fernandes said. This sys­tem improves drainage but can also worsen the effects of extreme drought. ​“We have gone through some of them too,” he noted.

The main grove pro­duces most of the farm’s olives, with cul­ti­vars such as Koroneiki, Arbequina, Picual, Frantoio, Pendolino, and Manzanilla.

The other two groves were planted in 2020, after sev­eral sea­sons of expe­ri­ence. ​“In June 2020, when we planted the other two groves, we did not use the ridge tech­nique, as we learned it wasn’t nec­es­sary,” Fernandes said.

One grove was named Tapera, a Portuguese word that nos­tal­gi­cally evokes the restora­tion of an old farm, recall­ing the countryside’s past. There — and in the third plot, Poente (“West”) — the team planted other well-known cul­ti­vars such as Galega and Coratina. ​“We expect our first Coratina olives to be ready in 2026,” Fernandes added.

One of the defin­ing fea­tures of the region is the wind, which can at times become extreme. ​“Wind is a con­stant fea­ture of our region, some­times blow­ing con­tin­u­ously for sev­eral days,” Fernandes said. Maintenance prac­tices must be adapted accord­ingly.

“With some cul­ti­vars, such as Manzanilla and Coratina, we tie the branches of the trees to the ground to achieve the ideal pro­duc­tive shape and pre­vent the branches and trunks from get­ting too dam­aged from con­stant rub­bing,” he explained. This prac­tice con­tin­ues for sev­eral years dur­ing the trees’ mat­u­ra­tion and has proven essen­tial for their proper devel­op­ment.

Because of the wind, prun­ing is also designed with air­flow in mind. ​“We always direct the branches side­ways, not upwards, so they do not con­stantly suf­fer from the sail effect. Branches with less leaf vol­ume and length are also less affected by the wind,” he said.

The farm also raises sheep of prized local breeds, whose manure serves as a nat­ural fer­til­izer. ​“Adding to that, quite pic­turesquely, there are many wild capy­baras in our groves. They keep the veg­e­ta­tion low and fer­til­ize large areas of the plan­ta­tion,” Fernandes explained. ​“These capy­baras set­tled by the ponds, repro­duced, and stayed. They’re quite an unusual sight in the olive land­scape — groups of capy­baras walk­ing up and down with their young.”

For milling, Azeite Pedregais part­ners with Fazenda Sabiá, a renowned pro­ducer whose olive oils have also won Gold Awards in New York. ​“They have been our part­ners since the begin­ning, and we know how impor­tant it is to have the sup­port of such a rec­og­nized brand,” Fernandes said.

In Brazil, not all pro­duc­ers are located near olive mills. ​“Ours is just a short dis­tance away, which allows press­ing to take place almost imme­di­ately after har­vest­ing,” he noted.

According to Fernandes, olive oil pro­duc­tion and cul­ture are still rel­a­tively new in the region. ​“The chal­lenges keep evolv­ing,” he said. ​“We rely on the expe­ri­ence of local farm­ers, other South American grow­ers, and European ones.” That knowl­edge must then be adapted to local cli­matic, rain­fall, and soil con­di­tions.

“For these rea­sons, we can’t sim­ply hire a fully trained pro­fes­sional — we have to develop our own,” he added. ​“Fortunately, our city has a tech­ni­cal agri­cul­tural school that pro­vides young peo­ple with train­ing in olive grow­ing, which is very impor­tant.”

For this high-qual­ity Brazilian pro­ducer, the next step is invest­ing in oleo­tourism — both to pro­mote extra vir­gin olive oil, still new to most con­sumers, and to diver­sify income sources. ​“We will soon offer vis­its and tast­ings at Fazenda Santa Joana D’Arc, where we have our olive groves, stain­less steel stor­age tanks, and a shop,” Fernandes said.

“Other prop­er­ties in our region, along the same road, will also offer oleo­tourism expe­ri­ences, which will be very impor­tant for every­one,” he added. ​“It’s a devel­op­ment area that should always be col­lab­o­ra­tive, involv­ing not only olive oil pro­duc­ers but also mak­ers of other local goods from our region.”