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move ahead on the way toward an industry maintained by sus-
tainable efficiency. Despite the growing challenge from climate
change with increasing dry spells expected to be the norm rather
than the exemption, few in the industry believe Brazil will not
remain the world’s leading power in coffee.
“Brazil is a country of free enterprise and you really see
it in coffee, especially when you look at the level of technology
and technification applied to coffee production which has made
us the most sustainable country in the world of coffee today,
from being the most productive to the most cost-efficient,” said
Brando, adding: “With over 7 million bags of certified sustain-
able coffees like Rainforest Alliance or 4C we are also the biggest
supplier of sustainable coffee and that is a number that only will
continue to grow,” he said. It’s hard to argue against this level of
efficiency in Brazil and coffee lovers can only hope other coun-
tries start to learn from this experience in order to secure the
supply chain needed to satify future generations of consumers.

Brazil Natural Arabica Coffee Harvest At O’Coffee Estate 5

“Brazil continues to see coffee consumption growing at
between 3 percent and 3.5 percent a year, and despite the slow
down reported in early 2014 we are still looking at adding at least Edgard Bressani Inspecting Trees At O’Coffee
700,000 bags in new consumption a year in Brazil for the time
being,” said Carlos Brando, an international consultant who has
adviced the ICO and the World Bank on coffee and consumption
trends for over a decade.
And despite international prices today at between $1.20
per pound to $1.30/lb and trading at levels close to the lows seen
at the height of crisis in 2001 and 2002, producers in Brazil still
make good money in coffee growing.
“Brazil is competitive because it has a low cost of pro-
duction and high quality beans, it really is as simple as that,” said
Brando, speaking to CTI Magazine during a visit to Espirito Santo
do Pinhal in southern Sao Paolo state, from where he runs the
consultancy company P&A International Marketing.
“When we look at the cost of production, Brazilian
labor costs are higher than anywhere else in the world and that
is why what we face today in terms of labor shortage is being
addressed through increasing mechanization, even for small Maja Wallengren has been writing about coffee for
producers growing coffee on steep mountain slopes just like the more than 20 years from over 45 coffee producing countries
conditions you see in Central America,” he said. across South-East Asia, East and West Africa and across
From the increasing level of mechanization used not Latin America. She can be reached at: mwallengren@
just to keep costs competitive but also to improve on quality outlook.com or via her blog www.spilling-the-beans.net
through the use of high-tech colour sorting, Brazil continues to
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