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South American coffee growers may delay harvesting this year. They may limit the number of workers employed due to the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. As a result, there is a threat of decline in export quality beans this year.
The pandemic has killed more than 250,000 people and upended food production worldwide. Meat processing plants where outbreaks have occurred are closed; truckers have curtailed deliveries for fear of infection, and farmers are destroying crops that they cannot get to consumers.
Harvesting is the most labor-intense component of coffee production. Colombia and Brazil, which produce 65% of global arabica, the premium grade of coffee, will need around 1.25 million people, according to growers associations. They, along with Peru and Ecuador, rely on temporary workers for field work.
Farmers, coffee traders and importers in top-consuming countries are concerned that the virus has not peaked in either Brazil or Colombia, and bringing workers together for harvest risks worsening the outbreak.
Brazil’s right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the seriousness of the virus, criticized regional movement restrictions and pressed for businesses to reopen, even as the country has recorded more than 135,000 cases and near 10,000 deaths, the most for an emerging market nation.
Specialty coffee trader Caravela Coffee conducted a phone poll with hundreds of associated growers in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia late in April. Most of them said they expect difficulties in hiring workers, adding that they might see losses of up to 10% in the production of export-quality arabica.
High-end coffee brands such as Starbucks, Nestle-owned Nespresso and Italy’s Illycaffe prefer washed arabica beans, while robusta, produced mostly in Vietnam, is widely used for instant coffee. Robusta’s harvest is over, but arabica picking is just beginning in South America.
In Brazil and Colombia, local governments have exempted some workers from restrictions on movement in order to avoid hurting food production, including coffee or port operations. Coffee deliveries rose 2.4% in March in Brazil, the latest month for which data is available, though exports are expected to have declined since. Prices rallied in March before declining nearly 10% in April.
Farmers in Brazil said they are looking to hire fewer people and harvest gradually. Several told Reuters that they are considering delaying harvest due to worries about infection.
“I will start with fewer people than normal, we might go slower in the beginning,” said Minas Gerais grower Paulo Armelin, a regular supplier for Italy’s Illy. Find more...
Source: Online/SZK
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