History
Get to know the history of the Procafé Foundation, since before, evolving the coffees of Brazil.
The fight continued within MAPA, this time, so that the technical staff, specialized in coffee growing, could continue working in support of the sector. This was only possible through the creation of Procafé - Integrated Support Program for Coffee Technology, through an agreement signed between MAPA and the CNA-CNC institutions, whereby technicians were placed with Cooperatives and Coffee Growers Associations. This agreement, with an initial term of 5 years, was extended for the same period, from which good results were achieved, until MAPA promoted its Agronomist Engineers to Agricultural Inspectorates.
The objectives for which the Procafé Foundation was created, and seeks to continue to this day, arose from the need to preserve and activate the technological heritage of the former IBC (Brazilian Coffee Institute), consisting of a gene bank, laboratories, experimental farms and the technician (with all his experience of more than 30-40 years) in the activities of research and diffusion of coffee technology.
In 1992, the phase of extinction of the IBC ended, with the distribution of assets and relocation of personnel to other Federal Government Institutions. In this process, it was fought for the Ministry of Agriculture to keep most of the real estate and human resources, previously linked to the coffee production sector of the former IBC. This was considered a natural path, as the technical staff consisted of Agronomists and Agricultural Technicians, therefore, dedicated to agriculture.
With the reduction of the technical staff in the different coffee regions, it was necessary to concentrate efforts, aimed at research and dissemination of technology, leading to the creation of the Procafé Foundation in 2001 , succeeding and perfecting the mechanism of what, until then, was a program called Procafé.
Along the same lines as the original Procafé, the Foundation was created by bringing together Cooperatives, Unions and Coffee Growers' Associations, to assume the role of technological support for coffee production, based on the collection of the former IBC, first with the use of the Experimental Farm in Varginha and the facilities and laboratories connected to it, and, in continuity, with the addition of new experimental fields, through agreements or lending, expanding its activities to other states as well.
In these 20 years of the Foundation's activity, despite the difficulties, especially linked to the lack of resources since there are no budgetary allocations from the government sector, a broad Program of I work on research, development and dissemination of coffee technologies that, supported by a strategic Master Plan, place the Institution as a leader in this sector. In this way, the coffee production sector, especially coffee growers, can count on constant support for its activities to improve productivity and competitiveness in the face of numerous challenges that this important sector imposes.
“We will continue to work, incessantly, to further promote the development of coffee farming in our country”
José Edgard Pinto Paiva – President Director – Procafé Foundation
