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Young indigenous woman from Roraima combined family history, organic cultivation, and agroforestry management to transform coffee planted by her grandmother into an award-winning business, rooted in the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land and projected in the specialty coffee market.
A young indigenous woman from Roraima transformed the coffee planted by her grandmother into a family-origin brand, cultivated in an agroforestry system in the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land, and brought the business to national recognition in female rural entrepreneurship.
In the journey of Ana Siqueira Calleri, creator of Imeru Café, family care, indigenous agriculture, reforestation, and management intersect in a production chain that started with 240 seedlings and reaches an expanding area with almost 9,000 plants.
According to the Sebrae News Agency of Roraima, Ana is responsible for Imeru Café, a product that is 100% arabica, organic, and cultivated in the indigenous community of Kauwe, located in the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land.
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The brand won the national stage of the Sebrae Woman Entrepreneur Award in the Rural Producer category, recognition aimed at female initiatives that combine management, innovation, and social impact in different regions of the country.
Indigenous coffee from Roraima was born from a family decision
The change began at home when Ana was about to start medical school in Paraguay and postponed her academic plan to take care of her mother, who had suffered an accident.
During this period, the coffee cultivated on the family farm caught the attention of a friend, who tasted the beans and pointed out the product’s potential in a market still little explored in Roraima.
Even without prior experience in the field, the young woman began to study cultivation, post-harvest, and business management to structure a production that, until then, remained linked to family consumption and the property’s history.
What existed as a domestic crop gained method, brand, and positioning, focusing on indigenous identity, traceability, and sustainable management, elements that began to differentiate the product in the specialty coffee market.
The initiative was named Imeru, a word that means “waterfall” and refers to the family’s Macuxi roots, as well as honoring grandmother Olindina Calleri, responsible for starting the cultivation.
240 seedlings turned into almost 9,000 agroforestry plants
It was Olindina who started the productive coffee history in the family, with the first 240 seedlings, planted before the project gained commercial structure, its own identity, and guidance focused on expanding the plantation.
From this base, the project grew and, according to the Sebrae News Agency of Roraima, it now has 1,500 productive plants and an expanding area that already reaches almost 9,000 plants.
More than just an increase in plantation, the advancement was presented as part of a strategy for income, environmental preservation, and community strengthening, connecting agricultural production, indigenous territory, and local economic opportunities.
Among the central elements of production, the agroforestry system plays an important role by allowing agricultural cultivation to coexist with other plant species, associating food production, soil conservation, and the restoration of degraded areas.
In the case of Imeru Café, the Sebrae News Agency of Roraima describes the initiative as a business that combines sustainability, ancestry, and innovation within indigenous family agriculture.
Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land strengthens the product’s origin
The strength of the origin also appears in the location of the Kauwe community, installed within the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land, one of the most well-known indigenous areas in the country, in the state of Roraima.
From this territory, the brand began to work not only on selling coffee but also on the product’s history, local culture, and the family’s relationship with the land.
Presented by the source as the first indigenous Arabica coffee of Roraima, and possibly of Brazil, Imeru began to occupy a unique position in a market where origin and traceability have increasing weight.
This formulation reinforces the project’s uniqueness in the state and maintains the necessary care with the national dimension of the statement, as the source itself uses a prudent construction when addressing the Brazilian scope.
In a sector increasingly attentive to production methods, territorial identity, and origin narrative, the coffee began to stand out through a combination of technique, cultural belonging, and family history.
Imeru Café reached coffee shops, specialized stores, and curations
The commercialization occurs through direct sales on social networks, coffee shops, indigenous goods stores, and curations outside Roraima, expanding the product’s reach to consumers interested in specialty coffees and traceable origin.
Part of the strategy also includes community visitation experiences, where consumers follow stages of the process, from planting to roasting, and come into direct contact with the production territory.
This approach reinforces product traceability and creates a more direct connection between producers and consumers, an aspect valued in markets that seek provenance, history, and differentiation.
In the last two years, according to the Sebrae News Agency of Roraima, the business experienced revenue growth of almost 100%, a result attributed to increased production and the opening of new markets.
For a rural initiative that moved from a family environment to competing in niches of specialty coffees, commercial expansion shows how management and positioning helped consolidate the brand.
Organic Arabica Coffee from Roraima Targets New Markets
In the next stage, preparation for export appears as part of Imeru Café’s plans, aiming to bring the product to consumers in South America and Europe.
The source reports that this movement occurs in partnership with the Export Qualification Program, without distancing the brand from the pillars that support production: indigenous origin, agroforestry system, family farming, and local impact.
Recognition in the Sebrae Business Woman Award strengthened the visibility of the entrepreneur and the state of Roraima in a national award focused on management, innovation, and reality transformation projects.
In the Rural Producer category, Ana’s victory placed the indigenous coffee from Roraima at the center of a competition that brought together entrepreneurs from different regions and economic activities of the country.
The Sebrae News Agency of Roraima also points out that the project participates in social actions linked to strengthening indigenous agriculture, expanding the brand’s reach beyond product sales.
This work connects coffee cultivation to local income generation and encourages other farming families, keeping the initiative linked to the territory where the crop began.
The story of Imeru Café stands out because it brings together a verifiable set of elements: a young entrepreneur, an organic product, agroforestry cultivation, plant expansion, national recognition, specialized commerce, and internationalization plans.
Each part helps explain why a crop started by the grandmother gained scale and began to represent a new economic possibility within the indigenous Amazon.
What does this trajectory reveal about the space that indigenous agriculture can occupy in Brazil’s specialty coffee market?
