Marcelo Assis, Bioma Natural

Bioma Café began as a partnership between Marcelo Nogueira Assis and Flavio Marcio Silva, who first met in 2001. Flavio had experience managing his family’s businesses, while Marcelo had just graduated from a technical school of agriculture. After nearly a decade of studying land, they founded their first coffee farm in 2010—dedicated entirely to specialty—in Campos Altos, Minas Gerais.

Their site is a 1,200-meter plateau in Cerrado Mineiro, covering 229 hectares divided into six distinct plots. Olhos D’Água is the central hub for processing. Soil health is maintained through extensive cover crops, data-driven customized nutrition, and organic fertilizers produced on-site. By 2025, Bioma expects 60% of inputs to be fully organic.

Bioma’s motto is “coffee for a better future.' They employ 22 full-time and 25 seasonal workers, and are always investing in their team, technology, and sustainability. On the tech front, they are developing post-harvest infrastructure, quality mapping, and digital traceability systems, and they continue earning recognition for the quality of their outputs, as recently as taking home the gold in the 2026 CoE Pulped Natural category.