Brazil's 2017/18 coffee crop, which has already been harvested, probably reached 50.45 million 60-kg bags, consultancy Safras & Mercado said on Friday, cutting its view from 51.1 million bags. It said that some large producing regions in Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer and exporter, produced smaller volumes due to problems during the bean's growing stage.
"Coffee beans are smaller. The South and the Cerrado areas in Minas Gerais and the Mogiana area in Sao Paulo were the most impacted," Safras' coffee analyst Gil Barabach said. The consultancy cut its view for Brazil arabica coffee output to 38.8 million bags from 39.6 million, but increased its view for robusta production to 11.65 million bags from 11.5 million bags. Barabach said the percentage of arabica beans of screen 17/18 (large beans) in South Minas fell from 30 percent usually to between 20 percent and 25 percent in the current crop.
"That surely impacts negatively final production numbers". With the revision, Brazil's 2017/18 crop is seen 10 percent below the previous season, when the country harvested 55.75 million bags.
The consultancy estimates that 60 percent of the current crop was sold by farmers by November 14. The amount lags what was seen in the same period last year (68 percent), but it is ahead of a five-year average of 58 percent sales for this time of the year. Barabach said producers continue to sell slowly, only small lots, saving some amounts of better-quality coffees in the expectation that the next crop would be smaller than most in the market believe, which could boost prices.
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