[09:10, 18/01/2022] Thiago MAREX: Brazil to Produce 2022 Total Coffee Crop of 55.74M Bags
By Jeffrey T. Lewis
(Dow Jones) -- SAO PAULO--Brazil's coffee harvest will be smaller than normal in 2022 because of unusually dry weather and frosts in some areas last year that had a negative effect on the development of the plants, national agricultural agency Conab said in its first report on this year's crop.
The country's farmers will produce a total of 55.74 million 132-pound bags of coffee this year, up from 47.72 million bags in 2021 and down from 63.08 million bags in 2020. Brazil's coffee production works on a two-year cycle, with larger crops in even-numbered years then smaller crops in odd-numbered years as the plants "rest" and recover.
The total coffee harvest for 2022 will be the smallest for an even-numbered year since 2016, when the country produced 51.37 million bags, according to Conab.
Brazil is the world's biggest producer and exporter of the more sought-after arabica variety of coffee, and the second-biggest producer of robusta coffee, after Vietnam. The arabica crop is much more affected by the two-year growth cycle than the robusta crop.
The South American country will grow 38.78 million bags of arabica this year, compared with 31.42 million bags last year and 48.74 million bags in 2020. It would be the smallest arabica crop for an even-numbered year since 2014, when Brazil produced 32.31 million bags of the variety.
The robusta crop will reach 16.96 million bags in 2022, up from 16.29 million bags in 2021 and from 14.3 million bags in 2020. The robusta crop was slammed in 2016 by a drought in the state of Espirito Santo, the main producer of the variety in Brazil, that slashed production to 7.99 million bags. Since then production has risen again to current levels.
Scant rain in Minas Gerais state, Brazil's biggest grower of arabica, and in neighboring Sao Paulo state last year hurt the growth of the branches that this year will bear the fruit inside which the coffee beans are growing. Frosts in parts of those states in July and August 2021 also hurt the plants, Conab said.
Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
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