São Paulo – Brazilian coffee crop this year should yield 44.57 million 60-kilogram bags and be 9.33% smaller than the one in 2013. That is what second crop forecast, released this Thursday (15th) by the National Supply Company (Conab) says.
The sharpest decline is expected to be in the production of coffee of the Arabica variety, which accounts for more than 72% of the total produced in the country. According to Conab, this year 32.2 million bags of this variety will be harvested, a volume 15.81% smaller than last year, due to the frost in the crops in the state of Paraná last year and drought in the crops in Minas Gerais in the beginning of 2014.
As regards the coffee of the Robusta variety, it should have a production of 12.3 million bags, up 13.5% over 2013. This variety, which is manly grown in the state of Espírito Santo, had an increase in the production area and a favorable climate.
Conab’s forecast is that the planted area this year will be 2.3 million hectares, 1.9% smaller than in 2013. The prices of the commodity, however, should maintain the current level for the next two years, the director of the Agriculture Ministry’s coffee department, Jânio Zeferino, told Agência Brasil.
According to information from the Center for Advanced Studies on Applied Economics of the University of São Paulo (Cepea/USP), the bag of the coffee of the Arabica variety was priced at US$ 191.66 on Wednesday (14th). A year ago, a bag of this variety was priced at US$ 153.05.
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
