According to a report by the Agricultural Statistics Agency of Brazil (Conab), the country is expected to produce 61.62 million bags of coffee this year, up sharply from 2019 but still lower than the record. received in 2018.
Conab said Brazil’s coffee production in 2019 was 49.3 million bags, while the record for 2018 was 61.66 million bags. Conab’s earlier forecast for crop year 2020, published in January, ranges from 57.15 to 62.02 million bags.
Brazil has years of alternating high and low yields, due to the natural cycle of the arabica coffee plant.
In a delayed report due to the COVID-19 epidemic, Conab forecasts Brazil’s arabica output at 47.37 million 60-kg bags, higher than 34.29 million bags in 2019. Arabica production for the month this year it ranges from 43.2 to 45.98 million bags.
Meanwhile, Robusta production reached 14.25 million bags, lower than 15 million bags in 2019.
“Brazil is currently in the main production year of the biennial cycle, and favorable climatic conditions are also key to increasing production,” Conab said.
However, the Conab forecast is lower than market estimates for Brazilian coffee production this year. Average estimates from analysts and traders surveyed by Reuters show that production in 2020 will reach 68 million bags.
Farmers are increasingly adopting more advanced technologies such as mechanized harvesting and irrigation systems that are expected to boost crop yields in the future, Conab said.
The crops 2018 and 2020 have the highest yield ever recorded, at around 33 bags of coffee per hectare.
Conab said Brazil’s coffee acreage has increased 1.4% from 2019 to 2.16 million hectares, as about 300,000 hectares of coffee trees planted a few years ago have entered production.
