Ernesto Illy played a decisive role in convincing producers to invest in quality
One cannot speak of Brazilian specialty coffees without mentioning Ernesto Illy, son of Illycaffè’s founder that, in 1991, came to Brazil to select the best quality coffees.
At the time, the company was very concerned with the drastic fall in the international crop and thought it would not achieve with its suppliers, good quality coffee to meet its demand.
In turn, the Brazilian producer was only interested in producing coffee as a commodity, not worrying with quality, only quantity. By the way, this train of thought was supported by the Federal Government, which was only concerned with the immediate results of the trade balance, lacking strategic thinking for the industry.
Ernesto Illy, started coming to Brazil with some frequency, believing that exchange of information and transferring technology in order to the coffee farmer changed its way of producing coffee.
O empresário mostrou aos fazendeiros que havia um mercado ávido por comprar qualidade e que estava disposto a pagar mais por isso. A Ilycafee resolveu seu problema de fornecimento firmando parcerias com os produtores capazes de fornecer cafés finos. Outra vantagem é que comprava diretamente, eliminando os agentes internacionais.
The businessman showed the farmers that there was an avid market for buying quality and that he was willing to pay more for it. Illycaffè solved its supply problem by establishing partnerships with producers capable of supplying specialty coffees. Another advantage is that it bought directly, eliminating the international sales agents.
The company established the Ernesto Illy Quality Award for Espresso Coffee in Brazil. 26 years ago. This award has generated a race for quality throughout the country. Traditional regions have consolidated their production standards and new ones have emerged.
“When Dr. Illy came to Brazil carrying this quality coffee message, it was a great success. This change made new companies come to Brazil looking for quality coffee”, says the CEO at Experimental Agrícola do Brasil, Aldir Alves Teixeira, responsible for one of the only laboratories in the world, outside the Illycaffè plant, that can approve decisions on coffee purchase, what makes the entire purchase process, favoring the producer, who receives payment faster.
Aldir helped to create the “the Ernesto Illy Quality Award for Espresso Coffee”, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. To date, were paid more than R$ 5.5 million to more than 2,000 awarded coffee farmers.
Entries for the 2017 awards end in September.
Illycaffè Sud America
Since 2010, the subsidiary company, Illycaffè Sud America, run by the Italian Giuliana Solari, has been working in Sao Paulo, and has been working on the expansion of Illy coffees in hotels, restaurants and coffee shops. Giuliana is responsible for all Illy activities in Latin America
Its showroom is located in Bela Cintra, in the middle of Jardins District, in Sao Paulo city, It Highlight the beautiful sculpture formed by collections of cups from the illy Art Collection, limited editions created by plastic artists from different countries.
