One of every three cups of coffee consumed in the world is Brazilian. Brazil is the world’s largest coffee exporter. About 90% of those exports are high-quality Arabica, a variety found in most of the best espresso blends worldwide.
While Brazil has the capacity to torrefy and export roasted, value-added coffee, today most of its exports are of green coffee beans. Increasing exports of Brazilian processed coffee would provide global consumers with greater choice and access to unique Brazilian flavors.
Brazil’s coffee-making regions are very diverse with different levels of altitudes, plant varieties, and production systems. Some are in high-altitude, mountainous regions where coffee needs to be handpicked; others grow on flat farms where labor can be mechanized.
The expansion of processed coffee exports is allowing global consumers to directly support Brazil’s hundreds of thousands of coffee producers, the majority of whom are smallholders.
Diversity and responsibility
The Brazilian coffee supply chain has deeply-rooted labor and environmental laws to guarantee the water and forest preservation that make Brazilian coffee among the most sustainable in the world.
Each coffee from every different region of Brazil has a specific taste, body, acidity, and sweetness. Five Brazilian coffee regions have received protected Geographical Indication (GI) status that designates their characteristics unique to their origin:
- Cerrado Mineiro
- Região de Pinhal
- Alta Mogiana
- Norte Pioneiro do Paraná
- Serra da Mantiqueira de Minas Gerais
Protected GI status provides the assurance that the coffee with the designation comes only from the region specified and has the qualities and taste expected of it.
Brazilian specialty coffee
Producers are focusing on quality rather than quantity. For example, the development of specialty coffee has been growing with the creation of a dedicated association that monitors and certifies the quality of coffee production.
Brazil’s specialty coffee association BSCA promotes quality control techniques, raising the standards of excellence of Brazilian coffee offered in the domestic and international markets.