Certifica Minas Café e gestão de propriedades familiares da microrregião de Alfenas - Minas Gerais

Abstract

Currently, the State of Minas Gerais accounts for approximately 51.5% of the Brazilian harvest of coffee, being sold to over 70 countries worldwide. In this new context where the market is, the farms are searching for coffee appreciation and adopting good agricultural practices through certification of coffees which is one of the domestic consumer and export markets’ demand. Given this situation, the objectives of this study were to verify the practices that the family farmers from Alfenas micro region had to implement in their properties to obtain the certification, the difficulties faced and the benefit. 23 properties in the cities of Fame, Machado, Paraguaçu and Poço Fundo were analized through interviews with landowners using a semi-structured questionnaire to survey information. After collecting the data, it proceeded to the organization through tables and the column charts and sectors, using Excel software (2007). It was found that family farmers had some difficulties during the process of obtaining certification, being able to highlight traceability and environmental compliance among all in the Check-List (Manual of Standards for Certified coffee farms). The greatest perceived benefit was the increase in coffee plantations' productivity through the management professionalization by getting the Certifica Minas Café certificate.