Brazilian couples are not suitable for white-collar workers to grow coffee

Almerlin (right) and husband Siquila Reuters

The struggle story of the Brazilian couple may be written into a Hollywood screenplay.

Juliana Armelin and her husband, Paulo Siqueira, decided to completely change their lives in 2010 when they both quit their top white-collar jobs in S ã o Paulo and moved to a country farm seven hours from the city to start their second career, ─, growing coffee.

Seven years later, they beat many prestigious coffee farms and won Brazil's highest honor Coffee of the year Award for the second year in a row.

"I can't imagine that we can get there in such a short time," Siquila said in an interview with Reuters after receiving an award from the famous Italian coffee maker Illy.

Almerlin, the wife on the side, said: "I always say that we are not qualified enough in coffee, only a few pieces of hard work."

The couple met when they were in college. They both graduated from the engineering department of Brazil's top university, Sao Paulo University, and then went to the United States to study for an MBA at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, and then returned to work in Sao Paulo.

Mr Almerlin worked at Mckinsey, a prominent business management consultancy, while Mr Siquila worked as a fund manager at Credit Suisse (Credit Suisse) and Vector, an investment firm.

They will start growing coffee beans because Almerlin's father wants to start producing coffee beans.

"I helped him with his research and fell in love with the idea," Almerlin said. We already had the idea of running a business together. "

After assessing the feasibility, they bought a farm in the coffee-growing region of Cerrado Mineiro, covering an area of nearly 210 hectares. "it was a dairy ranch, with only pasture," Siquila recalled. "

They planted their first coffee trees in 2011, harvested their first beans two years later, and had their first bumper harvest in 2015. A year later, they won the prize for the first time.

The farm uses state-of-the-art equipment, 100% irrigation and fully mechanized harvesting. "We have done a lot of research and asked a lot of experts who are good at producing high-quality coffee beans to do it the way they suggest," Almerlin said. Some people say we are idiots and want to grow coffee. We often say, 'Yes, we are'. "

They apply for government-guaranteed loans as much as possible to borrow money to buy all the equipment on the farm. Almerlin smiled and said, "the debt we owe will never be repaid in our lifetime." At present, 80% of the farm's output is exported, many of which are sold directly to boutique coffee merchants in the United States.

Nevertheless, the couple do not advise others to emulate them. "even if you have the money, it's really not easy," says Mr Almerlin. It takes a lot of effort to grow coffee. "

She also stressed that the two work closely together, she is responsible for financial management, and Siquila is in charge of managing the farm. But the two had no regrets. "We may grow coffee all our lives," she said. "

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