While Brazil remains the world’s largest producer and exporter of coffee by wide margins, a new peer-reviewed analysis suggests its specialty coffee footprint remains comparatively small, highly concentrated and expensive to scale.
In an open-access paper published late last year in Scientific Reports, researchers affiliated with the Rural Development Institute of Paraná (IAPAR-EMATER) and State University of Londrina analyzed 2023 data from 175 farms associated with the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA), focusing on production area, certifications, cultivars, processing methods and the specialty coffee production chain.
A Small Certified Specialty Footprint
The authors estimate that Brazil had about 1.872 million hectares of coffee harvesting area overall in 2022, while just 38,000 hectares were tied to certified arabica specialty coffee production. Of that certified specialty area, Minas Gerais accounted for roughly 82%, followed by São Paulo at about 4,000 hectares (10%).
The paper argues that Minas Gerais’ lead is not only about agronomy; it is also about market structure. According to the authors, specialty production is “supported by a well-structured supply chain” in Minas, while other regions face frictions that make specialty production harder to sustain commercially.
Processing Methods and Terminology
Across the surveyed farms, most producers used some form of “semidry” (a.k.a. “pulped natural”) processing, often in combination with other methods, while wet/washed processing appeared on a minority of properties (19.82%).
One practical conclusion that the paper may offer the industry is that processing language remains messy, with numerous terms used to describe similar post-harvest processing techniques. The paper tallied 23 different terms used by farms to describe processing methods, suggesting a lack of shared definitions between exporters, importers and roasters.
Cultivars, Certifications and the Cost Barriers
In analyzing plant types across the farms, the researchers noted high incidence of Coffea canephora (robusta) introgression, yet said many of those cultivars display a high “genetic potential for producing specialty coffees.” They also pointed to results from Brazil’s Cup of Excellence program as supporting evidence, noting that cultivars with canephora introgression represented roughly 27% to 43% of the “best coffees” by year from 2019 through 2022.
Among the 175 BSCA-associated farms, 74 reported Rainforest Alliance certification and 34 reported Certifica Minas, with smaller counts for IBD (nine) and Starbucks CAFE Practices (1). Twenty-nine farms reported no certification.
Paradoxically, the study’s authors framed third-party certification as both a pathway toward specialty coffee production and as a barrier due to costs.
“The production of specialty coffees is still limited to a few producers due to the higher costs related to investments in equipment, certification and traceability,” the authors wrote. “Certifications play a crucial role in ensuring quality and sustainability, addressing environmental, social and management aspects. These factors are essential for differentiating Brazilian specialty coffees in the global market, increasing their value and its selling price.”
The paper highlights upfront investment needs for post-harvest processing infrastructure and notes that outside Minas Gerais, specialty expansion can be constrained by basics such as a lack of buyers and limited warehouses and exporters.
The authors acknowledged support from Brazil’s CNPq and CAPES and declared no competing interests.
Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter.
