Better coffee and low price mark harvest in Minas Gerais – 07/17/2023 – Market

The expectation in the coffee plantations of Minas Gerais has been confirmed, for good and for bad, in recent months. This year’s crop is of better quality than the last ones, but so far it has also been marked by prices well below those practiced in previous years and by the difficulty in finding qualified labor.

After a dry winter last year, followed by rain, there was a more concentrated opening of coffee flowering, which made the maturation of the grains occur more uniformly in regions such as cerrado mineiro, south of Minas and middle mogiana paulista.

The price of a 60-kilogram bag of coffee fluctuated from R$900 to R$1,000 until the beginning of June, but with the advance of the harvest, values ​​are already below R$830, well below the R$1,600 found in the last season. The average was between R$ 1,200 and R$ 1,300 per bag.

“Faced with other commodities, it is not the price we would like, but it has dropped less than the others. We have already had better prices and what happens is that the cost of production has gone up a lot, mainly with labor”, said Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo, president of Cooxupé (Regional Cooperative of Coffee Growers in Guaxupé), which brings together 18,000 members and is the largest in the country.

The current harvest, which until last week had already reached 42.68% of the Cooxupé area, is being harvested with a higher quality than the last harvests, but below what coffee growers expected, according to the president. In some places, such as the south of Minas Gerais and the Mata de Minas region, the index is already 50% of the harvested area.

“We expected the vintage to be better. It is better than the last ones, but not much.”

The concern with the prices received and the rising cost is also shared by producers such as the brothers Sérgio Henrique Rocha and Suzana Santos Passos, from the São Domingos farm, in Muzambinho.

They cultivate, alongside other siblings and parents, 86 hectares of coffee, which result, on average, in 3,000 bags per year. “We believe that the harvest will be good, but the price is worrying,” said Rocha.

Suzana stated that it is necessary for the producer to work hard on his production cost, and not on the market, to be able to close accounts.

“The price of BRL 1,200 [safra passada] for us it was not bad. We managed to get R$1,400 and there was someone who sold small lots to a very specific audience, such as coffee shops, for R$1,600. Our cost will be known with the harvest, which consumes almost 50% of expenses, “he said.

Producers have found it difficult to hire employees for functions such as tractor drivers and even day laborers. Very mountainous, the region demands dexterity from tractor drivers and a lot of manual work in the harvest.

For tractor drivers, the values ​​reported by producers to Folha indicate that, for less than R$ 5,000 a month, it is difficult to find a professional. For day laborers, the values ​​range from R$ 250 to R$ 400.

“Our region has a scarce workforce and there is a lot of work [fora do campo]. There are cooperatives, exporters, we are next to Juruaia, which is a lingerie center, and there are many factories here in Muzambinho. This all makes it difficult to find”, said agronomist and rural producer Reginaldo Emerson Dias Junior.

He stated, however, that this fact is good for coffee growing, as it means that those who are in the area really like the field, and are not in the activity just to get their monthly income. “You have to pay because, if not, the neighbor comes and takes the guy away.”

The president of Cooxupé said that the scenario also happens because Brazil is now a powerhouse in agribusiness and coffee growing in the Guaxupé region is geographically very close to the country’s major centers.

Minas Gerais is the largest coffee producing state in the country and accounts for 50% of the Brazilian total. The harvest in Minas should reach 27.5 million bags this year, according to data from Conab (National Supply Company).

Brazilian production initially estimated for 2023 is 54.94 million bags, of which 37.43 million bags are Arabica and 17.5 million canephoras (robusta and conilon).

World coffee production was estimated at 172.8 million bags, according to Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), which means that Brazil will account for 31.8% of global supply.

The journalist traveled at the invitation of Sebrae