Small producers from Paraná celebrate the first direct export of specialty coffees

For the first time since its creation, the Northern Pioneiro do Paraná Specialty Coffee Cooperative (COCENPP) carried out direct exportation – without intermediation of traders – of specialty coffees abroad. The 96 bags of natural coffee and peeled cherries, weighing 30 kilos each, left Brazil through the port of Santos, São Paulo, on December 24th, and arrived at their final destination, Barcelona, ​​Spain, on January 15th.

The submission included the participation of seven small cooperative producers: Evilásio Shigueaki Mori, Paulo José Frasquetti, Ricardo Batista dos Santos, Claudinei de Carvalho Nunes, Pedro Luiz Costa, Antônio Carlos Delmonico and Armando César Casimiro. The planning and documentation for the export were carried out by COCENPP's commercial representative, Angelina Harumi Shimysu Jussiani.

She says that she received training from Apex Brasil, specifically for exports to micro and small companies, online, due to the pandemic. The approach to the exporter came from a coffee producer in the northwest of Paraná that Angelina contacted during the International Coffee Week, in Minas Gerais, last September.

“I met producers from Cambira, Maringá and Apucarana. One of them called me, shortly afterwards, saying that a friend from Spain would like to get to know COCENPP”, he says.

The Spaniard went to the cooperative's headquarters, in Congonhinhas, and also visited the processing unit in the municipality of Lavrinha, both in the pioneering north. It was then that he decided to take bags of special coffees from the pioneer north and northwest of Paraná to the European continent.

Angelina jokes that the cooperative’s first export happened “suddenly”. With support from Peiex Brasil and the seven producers, she was able to gather the documentation and plan the shipping logistics in a few weeks. According to her, the Geographical Indication (GI), in the form of origin of the coffee from the pioneering north of Paraná, will have its seal stamped on the packaging and will help in the marketing and dissemination of the product in Spanish territory.

“In Europe, indications of origin are valued”, he states. The commercial representative highlights that the export would not have happened without the support of Sebrae/PR, which offered all technical support since winning the IG. “I did the training, I put in the effort and we made it happen, but it only worked because of the cooperativism and the work of the producers, COCENPP, and support from Apex and Sebrae / PR”, she highlights.

For the coffee grower, one of the exporters and president of COCENPP, Ricardo Batista dos Santos, sending coffee directly to Spain is a dream come true. He says that he has been exporting coffee for many years, since 2013, but always with the intermediation of traders.

“Now, we can say that we have become exporters. The profit will stay within the cooperative and for us, producers, the remuneration is very good. We received twice the price we would have here on the national market”, he celebrates.

Sebrae/PR consultant, Odemir Capello, says that direct exports should greatly expand the cooperative's relationship channel, which will be able to win more customers and have more profits and better results. “It is something that, until recently, was considered impossible, but has become viable thanks to cooperativism and the work to produce differentiated coffees with provenance records”, he assesses.

The coffees sent to Spain will be sold to roasters and also sold via an e-commerce platform directly to the end consumer. After the first shipment, the cooperative received export proposals to other countries, such as Italy and Russia.