For the brothers Márcio Custódio and Izonel Junior, Fazenda Cetec is a dream come true. At a young age, the brothers worked as coffee pickers within the region of Sul de Minas, Brazil. Márcio and Izonel had the opportunity to leave the farms to study and graduate as professors.
After teaching at the university, they established CETEC: Center of Technology of the city of Lavras (South of Minas Gerais). A school dedicated to providing education to young people from poor households. The school trained more than five-thousand people within ten years.
Satisfied and confident with their success at CETEC, Márcio and Izonel bought a small farm in the city of Itumirim – an indigenous name for a small waterfall, referring to the many waterfalls in the area. One day after the purchase of the farm, the elder brother, Izonel Junior, suddenly passed away. Deeply troubled by the death of his brother, Márcio’s instinct was to sell the farm.
But Márcio stays and honors the dream of his late brother. Márcio’s nephew, Heitor Botelho, starts to assist his uncle and the farm is baptized as Fazenda Cetec: to honor Izonel Junior and the work he accomplished with Márcio through the CETEC school.
Fazenda Cetec invests in the preservation and restoration of its local environment – caring for the springs and dense forests. They minimize the use of water during processing and grass, that grows under the trees, is used as natural organic matter.
