SINGAPORE: Brazil has raised its robusta production by 20% to 20.2 million 60-kg bags over the past three seasons, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data shows. Meanwhile output of robusta in Vietnam has fallen 5% to 28 million bags.
The Southeast Asian nation’s position as the world’s top robusta exporter is secure for now; it exported 23.6 million bags last season versus No. 2 robusta producer Brazil’s 4.9 million.
Yet things are changing on the international front for Brazil. The bulk of its robusta crop has traditionally been gulped down by strong domestic consumption of more than 13 million bags a year, but the country has now built up a healthy surplus for export.
Up until this year, a lot of Brazilian beans ended up in warehouses certified by the ICE Futures Europe exchange, the market of last resort for excess coffee without international buyers.
Data from Cecafe, Brazil’s coffee export association shows that in 2018, 2019, 2020, between 20-50% of Brazil’s conillon exports went to the Netherlands, Belgium and Britain - home of nearly all of the exchange’s robusta coffee stocks.
By contrast, in the year to May, only 2% went there, with Mexico and South Africa among the countries which have been importing a lot more Brazilian robusta, bound for roasters who turn green beans into retail coffee blends.
“Every day another roaster says I’m going to go for conillons,” said a senior coffee trader at a Swiss-based global trade house.
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Vietnam’s robusta dominance has been based on much higher average yields than rivals, of around 2.5 tonnes a hectare. India, for example, has an average robusta yield of around 1.1 tonnes.
But with Brazil having worked for some two decades on improving the quality, taste and resilience of its conillon while raising productivity levels by up to 300%, the country is competing aggressively.
It has now a similar average yield to Vietnam, and farmers believe there is potential for further growth.
Luiz Carlos Bastianello, a conillon farmer from Espirito Santo state, told Reuters that modern, mechanised farms in his state have achieved record yields as high as 12 tonnes per hectare.
Espirito Santo also holds annual competitions to determine the best conillon quality.
“We’ve been working on quality for 18 years,” said Bastianello, who is also head of one of Espirito Santo’s largest co-operatives, Cooabriel.
There are several different varieties of conillon seedlings in Brazil, he added, all of which have been specially bred to increase their genetic resilience and efficiency and are particularly well suited to withstand warm, dry weather.
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