Coffee in Brazil and Colombia
Nina Student ID :S06102
Research Paper Supervisor : Dr. Sekou Conde
Minzhu University of China
2006-2007 Academic Year
Coffee is one of the major products in the world which is loved by people all over the world. It’s grown in many tropical countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas. In South America, Brazil and Colombia are considered as the two largest coffee producers in the world. These two countries are famous for their coffees. Are there any differences between Brazilian and Colombian coffee? Some people may ask this kind of question. The answer is certainly yes. Brazilian coffee differs from Colombian coffee in several aspects. In order to help those who are curious about or who would like to know the differences between Brazilian and Colombia coffee to get a relatively comprehensive understanding about it, I’m going to discuss about the Brazilian and Colombian coffee from these four aspects: history, characteristic, organization, processing method.
Coffee Growing Regions of the World
I am going to discuss Brazilian coffee first. The four aspects I am going to discuss are history, characteristic, organization and processing method.
http://www.espressotec.com/iccoffee215.asp
History
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Coffee originates in Ethiopia in Africa and was introduced into Brazil in 1727. In the 1800s, vast plantations were all over the country and the coffee boom lasted almost a century. The impact of coffee on the Brazilian economy was pretty strong. The Brazilian economy grew considerably in the second half of the nineteenth century. Coffee was the mainstay of the economy, accounting for 63 percent of the country's exports in 1891.[1] At the beginning of 1900s, the output of coffee on the brazil’s coffee accounts for 75 percent of the world’s total account.Besides,in the long run, thee export of coffee takes 2/3 of brazil’s total export income. Therefore, Brazil obtains its reputation of “coffee kingdom”.
What I want to mention here is the strict regulation over the coffee sector. Before 1990, the government held a strict regulation—the international coffee organization (ICO) and some Brazilian institutions set quotas for importing and exporting coffees. This policy really protected a few producers in Brazil, however, it deteriorated specialty coffee sector. The reason is that: once quotas were set, the import and export were assured. Unfortunately, Brazil’s government just focused its attention on the price and quantity of coffee and neglects its quality. In this case, the producer would mix high quality coffees and low coffees in order to fill the needs of the quota system. In the early 1990s the new government broke the quota. This brought about a revolution in how coffee was exported in Brazil, thereby bringing about a reform in how coffee was grown, processed and treated. Nowadays, specialty coffee is on the rise and Brazil should no longer be viewed as a country suitable only for blending. Outbreaks of the great depression in1929 made coffee consumption lessen hugely, which was a heavy blow to the economy of Brazil. However, Brazil is still the largest producer and exporter.
Characteristic:
http://www.alibaba.com/countrysearch/BR-suppliers/Coffee.html
Brazil is the largest country for coffee production and export. Brazil locates in the southeast of south America??/span>the largest part of brazil is the tropical zone. It has a quite hot climate. And it is said that Brazil’s coffee planting grew rapidly because of its location, climate and low labor cost. There are ten states in Brazil producing coffees. Owning to the diversity of location and climate, the coffee’s quality differs in different regions. Consequently; there are different degrees of coffee in Brazil. In Brazil, Santos coffee (or bourbon Santos) is the most famous coffee in Brazil.
Santos coffee, named for one of the principal ports through which it is shipped, comes mainly from the original Bourbon strain of Coffee Arabica brought to Brazil in the eighteenth century from the island of Bourbon, now Reunion. Brazilian Stantos coffee has been known for more than 100 years as Brazil's 'Green Gold,' these coffee beans are grown high atop the hills of Brazil's Santos region. The careful cultivation of Santos coffee seeds and the harvesting of their beans has remained virtually unchanged for generations. These beauties' have a strong flavor and medium body. Brazilian coffees are so good due to the dry winters of the savannah highlands of Bahia and Northern Minas Gerais and their proximity to the Ecuator line yield high quality Brazilian coffees. The Cerrado highlands of Western Minas Gerais benefit from well defined seasons, uniform maturation and plenty of sunshine in the harvesting season to produce a round cup with perfect balance between body and acidity. The South Minas and Mogiana mountains are well known for Brazilian coffees with very good body and aroma and a degree of natural sweetness not found elsewhere in the world. [2]
Brazil also sells soluble (instant) coffee, in the last four years, roasted-and-ground coffee. Instant coffee was the first kind of Brazilian coffee to reach China and Russia. International competition from the 1950s onwards drove the contribution of Brazil to world production down to an average of 25%, but it has risen to 30% today. Most Brazilian coffee goes to Germany, the USA, Italy and France, but some now goes to East Asian and Middle Eastern buyers.[3]
Organization
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Given that coffee is a mass consumer product with billions of cups served daily around the world, it has been much more effective for industry organizations to coordinate activities. There was one famous organization in Brazil called IBC (Brazilian coffee institute) which bought coffee from growers and sold it on the world market. It really served a very important function in regulating the price and quantity of available coffee through supply controls. However??/span>this organization was abolished in the early 1990s.As is mentioned in paragraph four, before1990, the government held a tight reign over the coffee sector, as well as other important segments of the national economy. Owing to the quotas set by some of the Brazilian organizations and the international coffee organization, lots of specialty coffee sectors were deteriorated. Consequently, with the opening of the economy in the early 1990s and the
Free market principles in Brazil, some of the Brazilian organization were abolished.
After that, another Brazilian coffee organization called ABIC (Brazilian Coffee Industry Association) was set. ABIC undertook a “coffee purity” program to assure consumers that adulterated coffees were not acceptable, and launched a coffee quality program to improve processing and roasting techniques. The freezing of the market after the demise of the IBC permitted coffee roasters to produce a wide array of coffee products for the full economic spectrum of coffee consumers. Consequently, we can easily find out that the restructuring of the coffee economy can be partly attributed to the organization undertaken by ABIC.
Processing method
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http://www.juanvaldez.com/menu/history/processing.html
There are three coffee processing methods in Brazil. They are dry processing method??/span>wet processing method and natural pulped method. Dry processing coffees are dried while they are still in the cherry. Prior to drying, only cherries that float will be removed. Since the coffees are dried in contact with the sweet mucilage, the coffee will be heavy in body, sweet, smooth, and complex. This coffee is also one of the most complex to deal with do to the long drying times and possibility of fermentation. However, since dry processing coffees are more difficult, Brazil has invested significant time and money to developing new drying systems and drying practices to prevent fermentation. Wet processing method is a relatively new method of removing the four layers surrounding the coffee bean. This process results in a coffee that is cleaner, brighter, and fruitier. Wet processing is done in a relatively small proportion to dry-processing in Brazil, but offers another cleaner and brighter dimension to Brazilian coffees. The natural pulped method consists of pulping a coffee, but emitting the fermentation stage to remove the silver skin. This
results in a beverage that has characteristics of both a dry- and wet-processed coffee. It is often sweeter than wet-processed coffees, has some of the body of a dry-processed coffee, but also retains some of the acidity of a wet-processed coffee. This type of processing can only occur in countries where the humidity is low and the coffee covered in
http://www.agrotropical.andes.com/coffee/colombian_coffee_trees_and_beans.htm
the sweet mucilage can be dried rapidly without fermenting.[4]
From the three methods above we can find that Brazil is the unique country in its ability to use three different processing methods to offer different types of coffees. Dry processing coffees which are dried with the pulp intact in order to acquire natural sweetness. They present strong body and aroma, mildly acidity and sweet flavor; Wet processing coffees are produced in smaller quantities which present high acidity, weak body and aroma; Natural pulped method allows the sugar of the mucilage to impart flavor and body. The Natural pulped coffees present good body and aroma, low acidity and some sweetness.
I am going to discuss Colombian coffee secondly. The four aspects I am going to discuss are history, characteristic, organization and processing method.
History:
http://www.juanvaldez.com/menu/logo.html
Colombia is the second largest coffee producing country. It didn’t take long to realize that coffee was a great commodity and imperative to the Colombian economy. [...]
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