BRAZIL :
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM NEXT CROP 2023/2024 ?
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM NEXT CROP 2023/2024 ?
Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world. Brazilian coffee is the base for the 90% of espresso coffee that in brewed on this planet. The coffee of Brazil is often called Brazilian naturals or unwashed and refers to the specific way the fruits are processed after harvest.
Dangerous Liaisons in the Name of Coffee
The story of coffee in Brazil begins with an intriguing tale involving a Brazilian lieutenant and his liaison with a French Guiana governor’s wife who secretly gave him coffee cuttings in a bouquet of flowers…
It was 1727, when Brazil was a colony of Portugal. This was a time when coffee plants were prized possessions, and every country considered its coffee trees a closely guarded national treasure. Hoping to grow coffee in Brazil, the Portuguese sent Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta to French Guiana, under the pretext of settling some border disputes. His diplomatic mission took him to Cayenne, where he noticed the coveted but well-guarded coffee plants. He turned his eyes to Madame D’Orvilliers -the wife of the governor of Cayenne- and devised a plan. At the closing banquet before his departure, his amorous exploits paid off; as she handed him a bouquet of flowers that secretly contained some coffee seedlings.
Back home in Brazil, Palheta started growing coffee in Pará, and production soon spread throughout the country, making Brazil today one of the largest coffee producers in the world.
It was 1727, when Brazil was a colony of Portugal. This was a time when coffee plants were prized possessions, and every country considered its coffee trees a closely guarded national treasure. Hoping to grow coffee in Brazil, the Portuguese sent Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta to French Guiana, under the pretext of settling some border disputes. His diplomatic mission took him to Cayenne, where he noticed the coveted but well-guarded coffee plants. He turned his eyes to Madame D’Orvilliers -the wife of the governor of Cayenne- and devised a plan. At the closing banquet before his departure, his amorous exploits paid off; as she handed him a bouquet of flowers that secretly contained some coffee seedlings.
When Brazil Sneezes, the Coffee World Catches Cold
Throughout the 18th century, coffee production increased in northeastern Brazil although it was never considered more than a minor local crop -the coffee plant did not really thrive in the northeast of the country.
The first coffee plantation was established by 1770 in the state of Rio de Janeiro and a soon small export trade to Europe developed. Initially, the coffee plant was grown for the country’s aristocracy, in and around Rio de Janeiro.
From the Baixada Fluminese region in the state of Rio de Janeiro, coffee production began expanding into the Vale do Paraíba, moving south and west into Minas Gerais and into the then province of São Paulo. By the late 1800s, São Paulo was the coffee center of the Brazil as production.
As from the last 18th century, a small export trade to Europe developed. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century that coffee production exploded in Brazil.
Early 19th century the American and European demand increased, creating the first of two coffee booms:
➤ The first cycle ran from the 1830s to 1850s, contributing to the decline of slavery and increased industrialisation. Coffee plantations in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais quickly grew in size in the 1820s, accounting for 20% of worlds production.
By the 1830s, coffee had become Brazil’s largest export and accounted for 30% of the world’s production. In the 1840s, both the share of total exports and of world production reached 40%, making Brazil the largest coffee producer.
➤ The second boom ran from the 1880s to 1930s, corresponding to a period in Brazilian politics called ‘café com leite’ -coffee with milk. The name refers to the largest states’ dominating industries: coffee in São Paulo and dairy in Minas Gerais. This period also saw the Brazilian government start the practice of valorisation, a protectionist practice designed to stabilise the price of coffee.
The plantations gave a huge boost to the construction of a railway network that could transport the product to the ports of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The railway system was built to bring coffee beans to market, but it also provided essential internal transportation for both freight and passengers, and developed a large skilled workforce.
The growing coffee industry attracted millions of immigrants and transformed São Paulo from a small city into the largest industrial center in the developing world. With a million inhabitants in the 1930s, São Paulo surpassed Rio de Janeiro as the country’s largest city and main industrial center. São Paulo -just like San Francisco before the goldrush- was a small town used mainly as a staging post for raids and explorations by the bandeirantes (mineral and slave-seeking Portuguese explorers). The advent of coffee and the suitability of the surrounding terrain quickly transformed the small town into one of the largest and fastest growing metropolises in the world. After slavery was abolished in the late 19th century, millions of immigrants from around the world poured in to work the fields and seek their fortunes in the coffee boom city. The city’s current rich cosmopolitan demographics reflect this.
At the turn of the 20th century, coffee accounted for 16% of Brazil’s gross national product and three-quarters of its export earnings. In the 1920s, Brazil was a near monopolist in the international coffee market, supplying 80% of the world’s coffee. Since the 1950s, the country’s market share has steadily declined due to increased global production.
Although Brazil’s market share peaked at 80% some 90 years ago, its continuing status as the world’s largest coffee producer gave the country considerable influence on the market over the years, including the ability to affect pricing -intentionally and unintentionally.
It is often noted that when Brazil sneezes, the coffee world catches a cold. On July 18, 1975, Brazil sneezed! A “black frost” destroyed over 70% of the crop and as a result coffee prices doubled world-wide.
New Crop 2023/2024 | Briefing
QUANTITY
Even in a ‘bienalidade negativa’ -between two harvests, Brazil has a harvest year with the best productivity, and another with less productivity, this current harvest year is a year with less productivity-, an increase of 2.4% in the cultivated area is expected, combined with a productivity gain of 13.9%. All this thanks to the good climatic conditions.
QUALITY
Later, between November 2022 and March 2023, in the stages of development, expansion and granulation of the fruits, there was even more rain overall, allowing coffee of good quality, good weight and few defects.
TRADE
Brazil | Local Partner Highlights
DATERRA
- Daterra is one of the pioneer certified B Corps. The company has been working for coffee sustainability for decades, and since then, it has accomplished significant feats. Considering Daterra’s track record, the company has become a reference in the coffee industry, particularly from the perspective of producers.
- In July of this year, Daterra came to visit our Antwerp HQ & Seabridge warehouse, and hosted a nice cupping session with our Cuprima clients.
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FAZENDA DUTRA
- The Dutras farms have drawn up their CO2 footprint; the greenhouse gas emissions inventory related to their activities in the 2021/2022 harvest indicates that they are already CO2 neutral.
- Dutra also implemented a photovoltaic solar power plant from Dutra’s farm in Minas Gerais, resulting in a clean energy source to operate their farms. The energy they can now generate would be enough to supply 460 homes with electricity. The next step for Fazenda Dutra is now being able to apply for international certification
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JAGUARA
- In June of this year, we met up with the Jaguara team at WOC Athens. Together, we hosted some exquisite (and highly appreciated) cupping sessions.
- Our team recently visited their office (Varginha) and their farms.
- In 2019 the farm participated for the first time in the Cup of Excellence contest with one of their micro batches -that had been processed using fermentation- ranking as the 5th best coffee in Brazil with a score of 90.47 points. This year once again, Jaguara will compete for the Cup of Excellence 2023. Let’s wish them good luck !
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VILA BOA
- On the farm, part of their coffee plots are irrigated, which allowed them to achieve an early harvest on these coffee plots. Their harvest was already in April, while most producers this year had their harvest in June-August.
- Why is this interesting? The advantage of having plots that are harvested at different times is that you can save space on the patios – this is a challenge that coffee producers face during the harvest period. Another advantage is that harvesting in a different period than that of the neighbours can ensure that the farmer has more people available to work on the harvesting process. When renewing plots or planting new ones, more and more Brazilian farmers are looking for coffee varieties with a different harvest period than those on the plots they already have.
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Brazil | Specialty Coffee Community Highlights
In 1991, Brazil became the first coffee-producing country in the world to establish a specialty coffee association.
While an increasing number of young producers have shifted to high-quality coffee production, the majority of coffee produced in Brazil is still of the commercial variety, grown on a large scale. Historically, the focus was on maximising volume and productivity, rather than improving the quality of beans or the technology used to harvest them.
Brazilian Barista Boram Um won the World Barista Championship in Athens (June 2023)
The World Barista Championship is the pinnacle of barista competitions. Contestants consist of winners of national qualifiers and hail from around the world. Most of them are from coffee-consuming countries in North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia. On a rare occasion, though, participants representing coffee-producing nations make it to the top of the ranks. And among the very few are Boram Um, who won the World Barista Championship –the first time in history for a Brazilian competitor.
It’s been 10 years since Boram entered the coffee industry. As an outsider with no credibility and reputation in an already crowded market, Boram had to prove himself by delivering tangible results. Having overcome stereotypes and biases, today Um coffee is setting the standard for a new era, bringing fresh perspectives to the traditional world of coffee.
As equally impressive is his brother Garam Um, who won third place in the World Brewers Cup competition.
Indication of origin : Southwest of Minas Gerais
On July 25, 2023, the BRPTO (The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office) published the recognition of the Geographical Indication (GI), in the form of Indication of Origin (IP), for coffee varieties in the south-west of Minas Gerais. The recognition underscores the region’s importance to coffee production at the state and national level.
Brazil currently has 35 coffee producing regions, 14 of which have Geographical Indication (GI) registrations. This info can be found on the ‘Origins of Coffee in Brazil’ map, published by the Brazilian Association of Specialty Coffees (BSCA)
Upcoming Events
Nov 8-10, 2023 : Internacional Coffee Week | Semana Internacional do Cafe
This year, the Brazil International Coffee Week (SIC) will take place from 8 to 10 November at Expominas in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. The event is one of the largest in the coffee industry, and includes exhibitions, lectures, workshops, competitions, and coffee tastings.
Since its inception in 2013, Brazil International Coffee Week has helped to connect global coffee professionals with a wide range of actors in the Brazilian coffee supply chain.
Nov 28, 2023 : Cup of Excellence | Disclosure and Awards.
150 Producers will be competing for the title of best Brazilian specialty coffee. In this 2023 edition, the 150 coffee growers qualified for the National Phase are divided in three distinct categories: “Via Seca”, “Via Úmida” and the unprecedented “Experimental”. Each of them has 50 coffees in this second stage of the competition. The complete list is available on the BSCA website.
National Phase | October 16-20
National Phase Disclosure | October 21
International stage | October 24-27
Disclosure and Awards | October 28
Sales National Winners | December 4-14
Cup of Excellence Auction | December 6, 2023
REFERENCES, KUDOS & INSPIRATION
Special thanks to João Marcos de Araújo Crespo & Isabel Vilela at EFICO Brazil for the intel.
Casa Brazil Coffees- The history of Brazilian Coffee
CUPRIMA – The Cup of Excellence, Why it Matters
Medium – The history of Brazilian coffee
CONAB – Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento
BSCA – Mapa Regioes Brasil 2023
Gov.Br – Brazilian Coffees with geographic indication
Apex Brazil – Brazilian Cup of Excellence 2023