Country Profile Brazil

"Despite being the largest coffee producer world wide, small scale Brazilian coffee farmers are facing market access and other constraints."

Coffee in Brazil

Brazil is by far the world’s largest producer of coffee, contributing approximately one third of the global supply. This substantial production generates work for about seven million Brazilians, who are either directly or indirectly linked to the coffee industry. However, in the period 1999 -  2007, an overproduction of coffee has had a negative impact on the price of coffee, which has in turn deeply affected the Brazilian coffee sector. Due to the strong Brazilian currency (Real), Brazilian farmers were not able to profit fully from the increase in the last few years of the world market price of Arabica coffee, which is expressed in dollars.

Small-scale farmers with less than 50 ha of coffee plantations have suffered most from falling market prices due to the relatively high production costs they endure. As they are generally unable to fully mechanize their field activities, they rely - to a large extent - on (expensive) labour and cannot compete with the advanced techniques and equipment of medium and large-scale producers. Small-scale producers, usually in the form of family-run enterprises that rely mainly on coffee production for their income, amount to approximately thirty-five percent of Brazilian producers.

Challenges

Efficiency

Due to a lack of access to proper agricultural extension, production by small farmers is generally far from efficient and not always oriented to producing good quality coffee.

Market access

Problems of efficiency and quality are often made worse by a general lack of collaboration and organization among smallholder farmers. This in turn makes it difficult for them to benefit from the favorable tax conditions made available to cooperatives, and to sell to public organizations.  Competition with large farms and well-developed cooperatives is strong, as the logistics for buyers who source from these are more efficient, while quality of coffee is generally more stable. Non-organized smallholder farmers also find it difficult to profit from the increased demand for certified coffee, as without support they are unable to comply with certification standards.

Role of the DE Foundation

2002-2005

The first phase of the DE Foundation project focused on a small group of small-scale farmers -  each with an average of approximately 4 ha of coffee, with the aim of improving the productivity and quality of their coffee so that they would have a better and more sustainable position in the market.

As these farmers had not previously received any agricultural extension and were very family oriented, the project had to gain their trust through extensive personal attention for each farmer. As part of the personalized training sessions, farmers received instruction about production techniques such as drying and harvesting. With improved technical skills, the productivity and quality of the coffee increased.

2005-2010

Realizing that an individual approach is very costly, the next phase focused on group learning. Through interactive training sessions, approximately 320 farming households received guidance on how to improve their production and processing techniques. As this interactive type of instruction is very different from the top down approach traditionally used in agricultural extension in Brazil, both farmers and project staff had to learn and get used to a more participatory approach. It involved encouraging discussion among farmers, with training focused on awareness of coffee quality, certification standards, occupational health and safety and organisation building.

Ambitions

Future activities will look at the possibility to make certification better feasible for small-scale producers, if possible in cooperation with existing local (certification) programs and organizations.