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n
Throughout brazil
Conab is an organ that has been keeping a closewatch on the Brazilian coffee crop
since2001.Informationcomesfromfarmers,cooperativesandotheragentsinvolvedin
coffee farming. Four estimates are released over the year, the first in January, the sec-
ond inMay, the third inSeptember and the last one inDecember. With the exceptionof
the last one, all others refer to information obtained in the month that comes prior to
the publication. In December, when information is gathered, the coffee plantation is in
its post-blossoming stage, one of the most important for the crop. At this time, favor-
ableclimateconditions andbest agricultural practices areanassuranceof uniformand
good quality beans. In the other months that are monitored it is harvest time, extend-
ing fromMarch toOctober, but is concentrated betweenMay and August.
ThestatesofMinasGeraisandEspíritoSanto,
together,arelikelytoaccountforupto74.1%
oftheentireBraziliancoffeecropin2017
A
ll coffees served in Brazil and in
the countries that buy the Bra-
zilian beans are produced in
18 states across the Country.
Five of them, Minas Gerais, Es-
pírito Santo, São Paulo, Bahia and Rondô-
nia, account for more than 90% of the
entire national production. These states to-
gether represent up to 95.4% of the crop of
47.5 million sacks estimated by the Nation-
al Food Supply Agency (Conab), in Janu-
ary 2017. The mentioned volume refers to
the higher forecast for the 2017 coffee crop,
or 2017/18. The other decreasing contri-
butions come from (2.7%), Rio de Janeiro
(0.8%), Goiás andMatoGrosso (0.4%each) –
other states account for only 0.2%.
More than half of the Brazilian coffee is
produced in the State of Minas Gerais. The
production in that state, estimated by Conab
sources could reach, at the most, 26.81 mil-
lion sacks of coffee in 2017. This volume,
though 12.7% smaller than the 30.724 mil-
lion sacks harvested in 2016, would repre-
sent 56.4% of the total in the Country pro-
jectedby theConab. Coffee inMinasGerais is
99% Arabica, and 83% is shipped abroad. In
the State, coffee is the secondmost exported
product, comingonlyafter ironore.
In2017, due to theoff-year of lowproduc-
tionand the smaller plantedarea, the crop in
MinasGerais coulddrop17%in the following
regions: South and Center-West, and 36.7%
in Cerrado Mineiro (Triângulo, Alto Paranaí-
ba and Northwest). Nonetheless, in Zona da
Mata (Zona da Mata, Rio Doce and Central)
the crop is supposed to go up by 26% from
2016, favored by the on-year of high pro-
duction in the region. The smaller area will
not prevent the crop in North Minas (North,
Jequitinhonha and Mucuri) from soaring
The biggest projection would be equal to
17.7% of the total coffee crop expected in
2017. Therefore, Minas Gerais and Espírito
Santo would produce 74.1% of all Brazilian
coffee. According to Conab sources, from
2014 to 2016, the drought, the shortage of
water for irrigation and abnormally warm
temperatures interrupted the continually
rising crop in Espírito Santo, reducing the
production of conilon by 50% and 40% the
total. As a result of the drought, many farm-
ers decided to prune their coffee fields dras-
tically, slowing down the coffee field renew-
al program. This caused the area of conilon
to drop bymore than 10%.
Theproductionof conilon inEspíritoSan-
tocouldvaryfrom4.605to5.295millionsacks
in 2017, equivalent to 55%of the supply pro-
jected for the Country. The share of the state
once reached 78%. Average productivity is
estimated from 19.56 to 22.49 sacks of co-
nilon per hectare, up from 1% to 16.2%. The
Stateisanationalandinternationalreference
in the development of conilon coffee farm-
ing, with average harvest of up to 35 sacks
per hectare, according to the Espírito Santo
State Research, Technical Assistance and Ru-
ral Extension Company (Incaper). Productivi-
ty has evolved considerably over the past 25
years, by virtue of the technologies launched
by the Incaper, inapartnershipwithother in-
stitutions. Conilon is the leading source of in-
come in 80% of the rural holdings in Espírito
Santo, located inwarmland.
n
Coffee
istheir
business
Production in Espírito Santo expects to resume its growth after three frustrating crops
8.3%in2017,takingadvantageoftheclimate
that jeopardized the crop last year.
The expectation for a smaller crop in
Minas Gerais is based on the estimated re-
duction of 3.17% in the planted area and a
9.9-percent drop in productivity. According
to Conab sources, in December 2016, weath-
er conditions suggested reasonable results
for 2017, an off-year of low productivity. The
area decreased by virtue of the intense prun-
ing operations carried out in 2016, exceed-
ing new areas in their first production stage.
Despite favorable climate conditions, aver-
age productivity is estimated to remain from
25.98 and27.34 sacks of coffeeper hectare. It
was taken into consideration that the growth
of the productive branches remainedbehind
expectations, but the blossoming stages that
followed were satisfactory, as the first blos-
soming stage was aborted by the prolonged
drought inSeptember 2016.
INTHEHIGHLANDS
TheStateof
Espírito Santo accounts for the second big-
gest volume of coffee in the Country and is
the leader in the production of conilon, or
Robusta. The 2017 harvest is estimated at
7.34 to 8.43 million sacks, up 2.5% to 8.3%.
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