Page 42 - #49 English

Culture

Story and Photos by: SPC Group, South Korea

Brazil: The No. 1 Coffee Producer in the World

Half way around the world from Seoul, with of 1,700mm, this region has the perfect environment
a time difference of 12 hours, Brazil produces approxi- to grow coffee with good body and balance. O’Coffee
mately 1.6 billion tons of coffee with the workforce of has approximately 4 million coffee plants available for
20 thousand farmers. The journey to Brazil, the number harvest and is able to produce around 1 million bags a
1 producer of coffee in the world, is not an easy one. In year. The types of coffee crops growing on the O’Coffee
addition to the 26-hour flight from Incheon International include Bourbon, Yellow Icatu, Mundo Novo, Red Catu-
Airport to Sao Paulo, there is a grueling bus ride from the cai, Yellow Catui, Obata, and Acaia. O’Coffee is largely
airport to the O’Coffee coffee farm. Even in ideal condi- divided into six smaller farms: Nossa Senhora Apare-
tions, the ride takes approximately 6 hours. However, cida, São José, Santa Adelia, Santa Rita, Santa Maria, and
with the inclusion of traffic jams and other delays, the Fazendinha. The coffee plants in these farms are further
bus ride could easily take even longer. Furthermore, the assorted either by species or by the time at which they
lack of a working air-conditioner in the old rickety mini- were planted.
bus makes the already taxing journey seem even longer.
Thus, after having gone through the gauntlet
of transportation, we arrived at O’Coffee farm’s guest
house 31 hours after leaving Incheon. Chapado, the guest
house on the farm, was built upon a bed of red sand that
stretched beyond the road. The red sand, unique to Brazil,
along with the lines of coffee trees and the free-ranging
chickens running about the traditional Brazilian houses
drove home in our minds that we were finally in Brazil.

O’Coffee Farm
O’Coffee farm is located in a small city called
Pedregulho of the Alta Mogiana region, which was the
center of the Brazilian coffee business since the early
20th century. With its altitude of 800~1,200m, in addi-
tion to average temperature of 19.5 ํC and average rainfall
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