Brazil's 2012/13 coffee harvest totalled a record 50.8 million 60-kg bags, the government said on Thursday, raising its final figure for the crop from the 50.5 million bags estimated in September as new farm investments helped boost yields. The 2012/13 harvest was a larger "on-year" crop in a biennial cycle that sees the bean production potential of the coffee plant rise one year and fall the next.
The 2013/14 harvest now developing will be a lower-output "off-year." The first official estimate for that crop is expected on January 10. This year's crop was 17 percent larger than last year's 43.5-million-bag off-year harvest and 4.8 percent more than the government's previous record of 48.48 million bags in 2002/03. Brazil is the world's largest coffee grower. Conab produces estimates for Brazilian coffee and other crops. Production of the higher-value arabica coffee variety was 38.3 million bags, while the lower-value robusta reached 12.5 million bags.