|
 Brazil, this year, is expecting its second largest coffee crop in the last ten years, totaling 45.5 million 60-kilogram bags. The estimate was disclosed last week by the Brazilian National Food Supply Company (Conab) in its second coffee crop survey for 2008. The volume represents growth of 35% in comparison with the previous crop.
Manoel Bertone, secretary of Production and Agro-Energy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, stated that the result could have been better, had it not been for the shortage of rain, especially in September and October last year.
The positive aspect is that production next year should decrease at a lower rate than the average recorded in the last two cycles.
"The coffee crop cycle lasts two years, therefore a small crop is always followed by a very good one. As the current crop is not achieving the full potential of Brazilian coffee farming, next year's crop should not be as small as it would be expected, which after all is good news, because it makes it easier to manage public policies, and thus to control inventories for transition in a more reasonable manner," said secretary Bertone.
The Brazilian minister of Agriculture, Reinhold Stephanes, claimed that the crop next year should total around 40 million bags. Secretary Bertone asserted that consumers can rest assured, as they should have quality coffee for reasonable prices.
He assured that this year's production should be sufficient to cater to exports of 28 million bags and a domestic demand for 17 million bags, creating balance between supply and demand.
Almost 85% of national production comes from the Southeast region, led by the state of Minas Gerais (22.9 million bags), followed by the states of Espírito Santo (10.5 million bags) and São Paulo (4.7 million bags). Total planted area is estimated at 2.29 million hectares.
The field survey was conducted by the Conab from March 31 to April 11, when 189 technicians at the state-owned company and partnering institutions interviewed 2,750 representatives of the sector, including farmers, cooperatives, and public and private organizations.
ABr
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Or average 20 bags....per hectare. And this is "the good year"
In Bahia, under pivot centers irrigation, production is 70 to 90 bags per hectare. Sometimes more.
In Bahia no risk of FREEZES, contrary to MG. And No risk of drought....with pivot centers irrigation.