Coffee production drops in Colombia, which imports from Brazil – 07/20/2023 – Café na Prensa

Coffee production in Colombia, the third largest in the world, registered a significant drop in the last harvest, which made the South American country resort to imported grains, including from Brazil, a competitor in the global market.

In June, Colombian production recorded a timid recovery after sharp declines. There was a 1% growth compared to the same month of 2022.

The small growth, however, was not enough to improve the scenario of sharp decline that the country has been registering. Despite the monthly result, production accumulates a drop of 13% in the last 12 months.

The national federation of coffee growers (FNC) of Colombia attributes the result “to the climatic variables that affect coffee production, which were not favorable for the flowering and grain filling processes in the country’s coffee zone”.

According to the FNC, there was an increase in rainfall in the producing regions, after three years of the La Niña phenomenon. In addition, farmers suffered from the rise in fertilizer prices, mainly caused by the war in Ukraine.

Brazil, a competitor in the global arabica market, was one of the most sought after by Colombia. During the 2022/2023 harvest, the country purchased 1.738 million Brazilian bags – a growth of 38.9% compared to the previous cycle.

As a result, Colombia became the coffee producing country that most imports beans from Brazil, which demonstrates the quality of Brazilian beans, according to Márcio Ferreira, president of the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé).

“A country that is considered a reference in quality is importing our coffee, which proves that our level of quality is also very good”, says Ferreira.

Once seen internationally as a producer of inferior coffees, Brazil has struggled to show the world that it also grows more sophisticated beans.

Despite this, the most demanding buyers, especially in the specialty coffee market, still tend to value beans from countries like Colombia and Kenya, for example.

Ahead of Colombia in the general ranking of Brazilian coffee buyers are only the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan and Belgium – none of which grow the fruit.

The purchases made by the South American country helped to soften a harvest that was also negative for Brazil, which also had the last cycles affected by climatic adversities, such as droughts and frosts.

Thus, in 2022/2023, Brazilian exports fell by 10.2% in relation to the volume of bags sold in the 2021/2022 cycle.

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