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Huge plantations
Brazilian coffee fields covered an area of 2.223 million hectares in 2016, down 1.1% from the previous year, according to
Conab sources. They were split into 1.95 million hectares (87.7%) under production and 272.786 thousand hectares in the devel-
opment phase (12.3%). The area devoted to Arabica coffee reached 1.759million hectares, corresponding to 79.13%of the entire
coffee crop. Minas Gerais concentrated 1.184 million hectares, corresponding to 67.3% of the total area devoted to Arabica. The
conilon coffee fields totaled 463,734 hectares, down 3.7%. Of this total, 424,773 hectares were in production and 39,011 hectares
in the development stage. The State of Espírito Santo was home to the biggest area, with 286,371 hectares, followed by Rondô-
nia, with 94,561 hectares, and immediately after Bahia, with 48,614 hectares.
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Yield
Coffee farming in Brazil achieved record productivity levels in 2016. Taking into
consideration the two varieties, average yield amounted to 26.33 sacks of coffee per
hectare, up 17.1% from2015. The highest yield had happened in 2012, a total of 24.8
sacks per hectare. With the exception of the states of Rondônia, Bahia, Espírito Santo
and Paraná, all others celebrated increases in productivity. This gain stemmed from
the favorableweather conditions in themainArabica coffee producing regions, allied
with the “on-year” of large production. The biggest increases occurred in São Paulo,
with 46.7%; Mato Grosso, with 39.4%; andMinas Gerais, with 32.2%.
Specialists of the coffee sector have it that the soaring productivity rates stem
from the good management practices but, above all, from the new technologies
generated by the research institutions, training and extension work. The same tech-
nologies were used by the producers in different coffee farming regions throughout
Brazil. These practices added to the quality of the beans and contributed towards re-
ducing the difference in yields between the on-year and off-year of production.
14
C
offee farming in Brazil registered
its biggest production in 2016,
notwithstanding the small-
er crop of conilon coffee, or Ro-
busta. The two varieties (Arabi-
ca and conilon) produced a crop of 51.369
million processed 60-kg sacks. The volume
was up18.8%fromthe total of 43.235million
sacks in 2015, according to sources from the
National FoodSupplyAgency (Conab), inDe-
cember2016.Uptothatmoment,thebiggest
result,50.8millionsacks,hadbeenharvested
in2012. In theworld, Brazil is the leadingpro-
ducerandexporterofcoffee,whilsttheCoun-
try is the secondbiggest consumer.
Arabica coffee, besides being the most
produced in Brazil, also contributed towards
making up for the smaller conilon crop. Ara-
bica coffee amounted to 43.38 million sacks
in 2016, up 35.4% from the volume harvest-
ed in the previous year. In the two previous
years, the cropwas adversely affected by the
droughts in 2013 and 2014. The variety ac-
countedfor84.4%ofthetotalcoffeecrop.Co-
nilon’s share remainedat 15.6%.
According to Conab officials, 2016 was
an “on-year” of large production for Arabi-
ca coffee, but the result was also influenced
by anextra 46.144 thousandhectares devot-
ed to the crop, through the incorporation of
Brazilharvestedarecordcropof51.369million
sacksofcoffeein2016,equatinganincreaseof
35.4%inArabicaandadropof28.6%inconilon
The
biggest
onrecord
a 4-percent smaller area devoted to the crop
and, particularly, as a result of the drought
anderraticrainfallsfortwoyearsinarowdur-
ing the blossoming stages and kernel forma-
tion in the State of Espírito Santo, leading co-
nilonproducer inBrazil.
Drought conditions also occurred dur-
ing the critical stages of the coffee fields in
the states of Rondônia and Bahia, which ac-
countedforthesecondandthirdbiggestsup-
ply of conilon. Conab technicians explained
that the smaller productivity rates in Rondô-
niawerecompensatedbythenewclonalcof-
fee areas that started producing fruit. The
main conilon producing states Espírito San-
to, RondôniaandBahia, accounted for about
94% of the total and endured reductions of
26.4%, 5.6%and46.4%, respectively.
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newareasunderdevelopment anda renew-
al process stemming fromthe pruning oper-
ations, especially skeleton pruning. Further-
more, the higher prices fetched by coffee in
2014 and2015 induced the farmers to invest
in coffee plantations.
Nevertheless, 2016 was bitter for the co-
niloncoffeeproducers, becauseof significant
drops in production. The volume of this va-
riety totaled 7.98 million 60-kg sacks, down
28.6% from the total in 2015. According to
Conab officials, the reductionwas caused by
Average productivity reached a maximum of 26.33 sacks of coffee per hectare
