We work with 14 partners worldwide, from who we source our coffee. In Brazil, we work together with Coopervass. On this page you can find everything you need to know about this collaboration.

OUR

PARTNERSHIP.

Brazil is an origin with contrast. On the one hand it is known for large scale monoculture farming that puts a serious pressure on the environment. On the other hand there are a lot of small scale farmers who are looking to de-commoditise and sell specialty coffee. These farmers struggle with the reputation of Brazil. Coopervass is a cooperative working with those small scale farmers providing that typical chocolaty coffee. We work with them to improve their specialty game and transition towards regenerative coffee. In 2024 we visited Soa Gonsalo. We had some constructive conversations about our partnership and visited farmers like Augusto, Willer and Cleverson. Our main take-away: these farmers are struggling to compete with the big boys, but their approach to specialty and sustainable coffee offers a pathway to a bright future in coffee.

THE

CHANGEMAKER.

Meet Allesandro. He is the driving force behind the direct export development as well as “the Green coffee project” for Coopervass. A program to develop higher value direct export relations and work on more sustainably grown coffee. Wakuli works closely with Alessandro and over 30 farmers to work towards 100% regenerative coffee production. Read more here about what that means. Allesandro, a coffee farmer himself, is the general manager of Coopervass and the mastermind behind moving the cooperative to specialty coffee. Add to that the ambition to become regenerative -getting off of chemical fertiliser and pesticides- and you understand that he is fighting a battle for a noble cause. Allesandro and his colleagues at Coopervass describe Wakuli as their family and the feeling is mutual!

THE

COFFEE.

The friendly, low acidic, chocolaty profile of Brazilian coffee makes it perfect for blending with more fruity coffees to reach a balanced taste, suitable for espressos and milk based coffee drinks. The coffee from the small scale farms who are organised in the Coopervass cooperative provide amazing specialty coffee. Balanced, predictable and even slightly fruity and funky. That is why we look for a special edition coffee (or microlots) from one of the farmers every year.

THE COUNTRY.

Brazil is not only the largest country in Latin America, it is also the largest coffee producer in the world. Nr 1 in arabica and nr 2 in robusta. The vast, rolling areas available for agriculture, the favourable climate and a high level of technical development, make Brazil into a coffee behemoth. Most farms are immense, sometimes (mainly in the west of the state of Minas Gerais) they can be over a thousand hectares. Together all farms in Brazil account for around 30% of global coffee production. In the south-east of Minas Gerais the landscape changes, hills become more steep and the landscape is more diverse. Here farms are relatively small. These Brazilian small scale farmers often have less than 10 hectares and have found specialty coffee is a way to compensate for limited volumes and their high costs for picking the coffee manually. Higher quality and more characteristic coffees yield a higher price, at least if the market recognises the coffee for what it's worth.

SOME NUMBERS.

103

Farmers

2020

Partnership since

133.500

Total KGs sourced since start of partnership

OUR BRAZILIAN COFFEE

Our Brazil coffee is available year round as part of all our blends and as single origin pods. Every year we strive to offer the coffee of one of the farmers from Coopervass as a Micro Lot. Because coffee is a seasonal product in every producing country and logistics are sensitive to changes, the exact timing of the offer is hard to predict. So keep your eyes open for our offers.