In Minas Gerais, Production and Tourism Go Hand in Hand

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Next to the cof­fee plan­ta­tions and among lush veg­e­ta­tion, olive trees have made their pres­ence known in Minas Gerais, a region north­east of São Paulo, Brazil.

Fighting against the weather, but with faith and per­se­ver­ance, pro­duc­ers here have gone all-in on high-qual­ity olive oil pro­duc­tion and oleo­tourism as a way to edu­cate the pub­lic about their prod­ucts.

Shades of green envelop vis­i­tors who arrive in the Sierra da Mantiqueira of Minas Gerais, three hours east of São Paulo, where palm trees mix with bananas and cof­fee plan­ta­tions to cover the hill­sides. For some years now, olive trees have sought and found their place in this fer­tile and col­or­ful ecosys­tem.

It was a curi­ous land­scape to find this species so asso­ci­ated with a Mediterranean cli­mate dur­ing a visit last month when the har­vest began in Brazil — one of the newest actors in the world of olive oil pro­duc­tion.

We found noth­ing resem­bling the olive groves of the Mediterranean here. Minas Gerais is any­thing but tra­di­tional, and its olive grow­ing is as sur­pris­ing as its land and peo­ple.

As the Miners, as the region’s inhab­i­tants are known, explain, they can have all four sea­sons in two hours, but a few things are con­stant. There will always be humid­ity, too much water, and that a cloud will dis­charge all its fury in the mid­dle of the har­vest is more a cer­tainty than a pos­si­bil­ity. But then the sun rises, a rain­bow appears and, well, who can resist that?

So we for­get every­thing we know about the olive tree — water stress, ther­mal oscil­la­tion, plant­ing frames — and we allow our­selves to be sur­prised because the truth is that about 10 years ago, the pro­duc­ers in this area — one of the most famous ter­roirs for the cul­ti­va­tion of cof­fee — began to plant olive trees.

It has been a cou­ple of years since then and the oils pro­duced in the region have gained ground in inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tions.

One pro­ducer, Fazenda Irarema, who won a Gold Award at the 2019 NYIOOC for its blend, is 12 kilo­me­ters (7.5 miles) from Poços de Caldas, an area known for its vol­canic soil and ther­mal springs which attract a large num­ber of tourists on week­ends.

Here, the Carvalho Dias fam­ily set­tled forty years ago. Monica had a dream to live in the area near her cousin. At first, her hus­band, Mauricio, insisted there was noth­ing to buy there, but even­tu­ally gave in and the cou­ple arrived at what would become their new home.

The fazenda, founded in 1870, had been com­pletely aban­doned for five years when they arrived. Today, it is com­posed of neat, well-kept fields, where fruits, veg­eta­bles, nuts, one of the most awarded cof­fees in the world — and olive oil — are grown and pro­duced.

The com­bi­na­tion of the land­scape and pro­duc­tion process led the Carvalho Dias fam­ily to open the doors of their home, and they now receive up to 600 vis­i­tors at Fazenda Irarema every week­end.

The expe­ri­ence is com­plete, includ­ing the chance to see the agri­cul­tural process and visit the farm shop where soap and other cos­met­ics made with the oils and its byprod­ucts are pro­duced and sold.

Next door to the farm is Bemdita, a pre­mium meat shop, pro­duced in the area under strict care and man­aged by Carol, whose hus­band, Moacir, the son of Monica and Maurício, directs the oil mill, man­ag­ing each machine and con­trol­ling each extrac­tion.

His sis­ter works in the adjoin­ing restau­rant, where tourists enjoy local prod­ucts paired with oils. Even the grand­chil­dren, the third gen­er­a­tion, par­tic­i­pate by sell­ing fruits that they col­lect them­selves.

Maurício knows every inch of the field, and weighs new meth­ods and tech­nolo­gies to improve the pro­duc­tion and qual­ity of the fruit; a real chal­lenge due to the cli­mate and abun­dance of pests.

Neighboring Irarema is the Fazenda Rainha, where the famous Orfeu cof­fee is pro­duced and, some years ago, olive oil too.

The project, owned by the Marinho fam­ily who con­trols the media giant O’Globo, is in the process of launch­ing its brand. Here, the har­vest is done in the tra­di­tional way on land that, besides being incred­i­bly green, is also moun­tain­ous.

The cost of pro­duc­ing in Minas Gerais is high, between $5 and $6 per liter, and there­fore, the prices of the oils are also high.

Brazil pro­duced 230,000 liters in 2019, and 40 per­cent of the total came from this region (the other 60 per­cent was pro­duced in the south of the coun­try).

In 2020, pro­duc­tion in the area will be 30 per­cent lower than in 2019. Fungi and strong hail storms in the flow­er­ing sea­son have impacted the har­vest.

“It is a real­ity that dis­cour­ages many, but for oth­ers, it moti­vates them to rein­vent them­selves, cre­at­ing expe­ri­ences, such as oleo­tourism, which are new in Brazil and allow us to cre­ate a cul­ture of olive oil,” said Ana Beloto, a taster, colum­nist and mar­ket­ing expert, who has been intro­duc­ing olive oil brands in the region for 18 years.

“We have to advance in edu­ca­tion so that peo­ple know, value and con­sume good olive oils — a path that is not easy, but it is totally pos­si­ble,” she added.

A few kilo­me­ters away, Carla Borriello, explained that the pro­duc­tion in Minas Gerais points to dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion. She has already man­aged to intro­duce her oil, Borriello, in some of the most impor­tant restau­rants in São Paulo.

Her prob­lem is not sell­ing the oil but rather the small vol­ume she is able to obtain — barely 2,000 liters are expected in 2020. She believes there are great oppor­tu­ni­ties for olive oil pro­duc­ers in the coun­try, which despite hav­ing very low per-capita con­sump­tion (less than one liter), has a large urban pop­u­la­tion will­ing to pay for qual­ity.

In a mar­ket dom­i­nated by low-grade indus­trial brands, she noted, there is an oppor­tu­nity to build on the high qual­ity of local pro­duc­tion.