Sustainable Coffee Economy Brazil

The current world agribusiness scenario displays the crisis in the coffee economy

brought about by the historical decline of international coffee prices and resulting

instability and distress of the economic agents in the pertinent production chains.

The diminished value of the product is mainly due to the existing imbalance

between demand and supply in the international markets, caused by a gradual and

continuous increase in coffee production throughout the world, particularly the new

coffee exporting countries entering the international market.

The increasingly competitive coffee market demands that the economic agents

implement new strategies aiming at meeting the demands of coffee consumers

worldwide. In such an environment, competitiveness is not enhanced only by offering

lower prices but, rather, by a combination of price and quality.

The Brazilian coffee agribusiness is necessarily immersed in this very

competitive environment and, therefore, is undergoing deep structural changes. Firstly,

it should be emphasized that the deregulation of the coffee market in Brazil increased

the interaction between the national coffee industry and the dynamics of international

markets as a result of the prevailing hands-off stance of the government, particularly

regarding planning and commercialization.

Secondly, the development and implementation of new technologies have

enabled a marked increase in the Brazilian coffee bean production, which explains the

paradox between increased coffee production and diminishing coffee areas in the

country.

Coffee bean yields per unit area can increase as a function of various factors,

such as climate and soil conditions, among others. Coffee productivity in Brazil, on the

other hand, has steadily and comprehensively risen as a result of changes in the

technology base of the coffee bean production sector.

According to CECAFÉ statistics, for example, bean productivity increased by

76.1% from 1990 to 2000, or 5.1%...