BRAZIL-ECONOMY: More Brazilians Drinking Cofee

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 22 1996 (IPS) - Brazilians are drinking more coffee which is good news for the national industry that, until now, has been dependent on sustaining coffee prices through tough negotiations with importing countries.

Just six years ago internal consumption was around 6.4 million bags of coffee (each bag weighs 60 kgs) but the home market accounted for 10.1 million bags last year, according to the Brazilian Association of the Coffee Industry (ABIC).

The goal is to reach 15 million bags by the year 2000, an increase of a million bags a year, said Americo Sato, vice president of ABIC. This would mean internal consumption would almost equal the amount of coffee exported – if the slow growth of sales overseas continued, he said.

ABIC estimated the average per capita consumption of coffee in Brazil was now 3.11 kgs – up from 2.71 kgs in 1990 but still down on the 1970 level of coffee drinking when each Brazilian accounted for 4.59 kgs of coffee per year.

With an additional market of five million bags per year, Brazil could increase its yearly coffee production to some 35 million bags and generate new jobs without any downward pressure on prices, Sato said.

Brazil, besides being a major world producer, is now second largest consumer of coffee, exceeded only by the United States which absorbs 18 million bags a year.Econopmically, however, coffee long ago lost its position as the country’s leading export but it has gained social importance.

Coffee generates the most jobs in the sector that absorbs the largest number of laborers – agroindustry – according to the National Council of Coffee growers (CNC).

Furthermore, coffee growing offers work year round, and not only during the harvest as the other agricultural sectors do, creating the crisis of seasonal work, Hercilio Amaral, secretary general of CNC, points out.

While reliable statistics are unavailable, Amaral estimated that some three million people lived by growing coffee on some 210,000 rural farms – a number confirmed by the agriculture ministry.

The coffee economy generated some seven to eight million direct and indirect jobs, including industrial jobs, internal commerce, and exports, said Amaral, who has 19 years of experience in this sector.

The coffee roasting industry, represented by ABIC, employed 35,000 workers in its 1,771 factories and if the consumption goal set for the year 2000 was reached, it would create some 15,000 new jobs, Sato predicted. The greatest advance would be in rural employment.

Coffee growers are watching with interest the campaign to increase internal consumption, but they are hoping to see a parallel increase in investment, Amaral said. The current coffee plantations can increase production with more fertilizer and other inputs, he said.

Currently, there are more than 13 million bags being warehoused by the government and the National Coffee Fund, which soon must come under the management of a Deliberative Council on Coffee Policy, which will be created with the participation of the government and various representatives of the private sector.

To increase consumption is not easy, especially in non traditional markets, such as China, Amaral warned, arguing that “one must change habits, which would take a generation.”

But Sato remained optimistic. Brazilian consumption grew at the start of a campaign by the coffee roasting industry, he recalled, creating a “ABIC stamp” of quality to win consumer trust.

More intense marketing, added to an image of credibility, advertising that stresses the benefits of coffee as a memory aid and for mental development, are factors to exploit, according to Sato.

And, Brazilians have to be taught a better way to prepare coffee.

The natives of the coffee growing countries “are those who least know how to make coffee,” affirmed Sato and he affirmed that in the case of Brazil, which produces the largest variety of coffee beans, there is a possibility of making new blends to satisfy all tastes, reducing the need for imports.