Exporting high-quality coffee a challenge facing Brazil
The world’s top coffee producer, Brazil harvested a record-breaking crop of 60 million sacks of coffee beans. Of this total, 60 percent were exported, chiefly to the US, Germany, Italy, and Japan—which purchase nearly half of this percentage.
The remainder 40 percent is absorbed domestically, which makes Brazil the second largest coffee producer on the planet, with some 23 million sacks produced every year, preceded only by the US.
Despite its prominent position in the industry, the country exports little of the manufactured good, which means low added value. “Brazil is the biggest exporter of raw coffee beans, which brings with it little added value, because the product is hardly industrialized at all, and sold shortly after leaving the field. The manufacturing process ends up being carried out in the target country,” said Nathan Hersckowicz, executive director of the Brazilian Coffee Industry Association (Abic).
The executive attended the festivities of the International Coffee Day, celebrated Monday (Oct. 1), at a reception ceremony held by the Foreign Ministry. The event was also joined by ambassadors from the main purchasing nations, in addition to federal officials and representatives from the Brazilian coffee industry.
One of the main challenges facing the sector in Brazil, Hersckowicz said, is boosting the export of coffee in its manufactured form. Only instant coffee, which accounts for some ten percent of shipments, has some added value. “Roast ground coffee is exported rather little. It’s still our weakness, and has demanded an extra careful attitude from the industry attempting to try and find its place [in the global market], and grow."
Hersckowicz argues that investment must be made in the development of high-quality coffee, the so-called gourmet coffee, which has three times as much added value as traditional coffee. This includes the production of gourmet coffee capsules, as most domestic consumers purchase either imported coffee or coffee produced in Brazil by foreign companies. “The international market rejects coffee with lower quality. It’s like the wine market, where high-quality goods are widespread and have better prices.”
Since 2006, Abic has awarded the country’s best coffee brands according to the assessment made under Coffee Quality Program—PQC in the original acronym—which encourages the improvement in the quality of domestically produced coffee. Awards are divided into four categories: gourmet, superior, traditional, and extra strong. “We realized that competition started to take place between coffee roasters over which one produced the best coffee. The level of marks given by PQC has increased each year,” said Abic President Ricardo Silveira.
In addition to being a national passion, coffee is among the flagships of Brazilian agribusiness and employs a significant amount of workforce. “Despite the modern age, coffee is still the production with the most number of people employed on the field. Wheat, soybeans, and corn are vastly automated, but coffee crops still rely largely on the hands of growers. In Brazil, six million workers are estimated to be employed in this sector,” Nathan Hersckowicz pointed out.
