In the parish of São Bartolomeu de Regatos, on the island of Terceira, Daniela Lourenço is developing the “Café das Duas Ribeiras” project.

Her love for the land and desire to revitalize her grandfather’s orchard led her to venture into coffee production, processing, and marketing. She recently won the Talenta Award, an initiative of Corteva and the Agricultural Confederation of Portugal that aims to “support and make visible the talent and entrepreneurship of women in rural areas.”

Correio dos Açores – How did the idea of producing coffee on Terceira Island, and how has your project “Café das Duas Ribeiras” developed?

Daniela Lourenço (coffee producer) – The idea came about in 2022 from the need to have a hobby and a family activity related to nature. I’ve always been very attached to the land, and with that in mind, we started thinking about starting a flower plantation – we even studied the market and its surroundings.

My grandfather had an orchard where he planted some untreated coffee plants, which served as a shelter for the land. Our path began there as we studied and researched coffee and talked to some knowledgeable people about the subject.

Through Terceira’s Agrarian Development Services, we managed to get more information and found out that they had coffee plantations. At the time, I enrolled in a training course on coffee growing, which resulted in an increasing desire to delve deeper into this area.

I started to create my own plantations, coffee, and shelters – coffee without shelters doesn’t work. We made progress and set up a field. In the meantime, I joined the Coffee Producers Association. The association partnered with the Regional Government, which supported us in training; in other words, it offered us the chance to participate in a coffee-growing training mission with the engineer and specialist Marcos Moulin Teixeira. Through this process, we could set up an experimental field of six new varieties of coffee exported from Brazil.

Little by little, we grew, building and acquiring plantations, always to expand. Today, we have a good portion of coffee installed; we are preparing sheltered land for the installation of cafés, and this year, we hope to harvest a few kilos of beans.

I’m relying on my family to help me in this initial phase because I have a job, and sometimes, it’s difficult to balance the time. However, it’s a very enjoyable project. It’s nice to see the growth, the different stages we’ve gone through, and the plans for the future. It’s a good feeling.

What is the process involved in producing coffee?

Whatever the terrain, windbreaks (whether natural or artificial) are always needed. We choose and plant the best seeds, and there are different variants for selecting the seeds. When they have a couple of leaves, they are supposed to be ready to go into the ground.

A coffee tree takes around two years to start producing. At the end of that time, it starts flowering, and the fruit begins to appear. It takes around four to five months until it’s ready to harvest. At the end of that time, I’m already picking coffee, and until the end of the summer, I continue picking.

After the picking period, the coffee is selected. We have to analyze and trace it because there are always defective beans. This initial observation is carried out in water, meaning that the bean that floats – called a “buoy bean” – is faulty or one with larvae. The rest are pulped (we do the pulping ourselves). One of the parts that makes the process difficult for us is drying because, unfortunately, our climate is very humid. Ideally, the grain should be dried until it has 11% moisture.

When the bean has this moisture percentage, we can store it and remove the parchment—a thin shell, almost like a peanut. Then, the coffee is ready for roasting. I haven’t roasted it yet; I just sell the green beans. The coffee is sold mainly to mainland Portugal.

You recently won the 5th edition of the Talenta Award, an initiative of Corteva and the Portuguese Agricultural Confederation. Can you explain the background of the competition?

I was unaware of the existence of the Talenta Award until recently. Through the Portuguese Agricultural Confederation, I learned about the procedure itself. I decided to apply impulsively: I had to present the project, make a personal presentation, and prepare a video (all by the competition procedures). CAP then contacted me and informed me that I had won the 5th edition of Talenta. I was very proud to win this award that represents rural women.

I’m now waiting for my prize package (which hasn’t arrived yet), and I’ve been awarded a cash prize of 5,000 euros. With this amount of money, my main idea is to buy a coffee bean pulper because it’s a very labor-intensive process and, given that the time between picking and pulping is short – because the beans start to ferment – this would be the most urgent need. The APAC association has the pulping machine, but of course, it would be preferable to have this tool between trips, and I hope this award will help me with that.

In your opinion, do Terceira and the Azores have potential in the coffee sector?

I’m pretty sure they do because as long as the coffee is well-installed, we can produce it under the conditions we have observed and analyzed. Compared to countries that make a lot, we’ll never produce large quantities, but it’s a specialty coffee and, above all, a good coffee. I think it’s worth the investment.

Currently, around 70 coffee producers (APAC members) are in the Azores.

José Henrique Andrade is a journalist for Correio dos Açores, Natalino Viveiros-diector

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.