History of coffee in Brazil
Coffee is the biggest export good of Brazil, and Brazil is the world's largest supplier of coffee. From the initial seedlings to today's massive industry o ouro preto (the black gold) has been intertwined in the formation of Brazilian economy, politics, culture and identity.
An elaborated history of coffee in Brazil is apparent in the timeline of coffee production in Brazil made for this very purpose.
As seen, when scrolling through the timeline, many factors are to be considered when trying to understand the role of coffee in a Brazilian context.
First of all it is necessary to point out that coffee isn't native to Brazil, meaning that coffee farmers had to acquire knowledge on proper farming as they went along. Numerous regions were used for coffee cultivation in the past, but are now considered unsuitable for growing coffee crops due to the way events, like climate disasters (the great frosts), were handled by the producers in these areas.
Since Brazil is the number one supplier of coffee in the world and its climate can be pretty harsh on coffee crops, climate disasters have an enormous impact on the world coffee prices. In the winter of 1975 a frost, later to be known as The Black Frost of 1975 hit the country and destroyed 76% of the crops due to be harvested during summer of 1976/1977. This loss in produce caused the world price on coffee to double!
Coffee has been grown on large-scale farms, plantations or fazendas in Brazil since 1770. At first this meant an increase in slavery and many slaves were transported to Brazil from Africa to work on these farms which is apparent in Brazilian demographic today. As slavery was abolished in Europe and USA and the consumers had increasing demands for coffee, a decline in slavery happened on Brazilian coffee plantations to match demands from their buyers in the North. But not an overwhelming decline, one must assume, since the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888 almost destroyed the coffee industry. New immigration laws were put in place and migrants came, mostly from southern Europe, to work on the plantations instead. This can also be traced in the current demographic. The abolition of slavery also led to an emerging group of small-scale coffee farmers, the ones we call smallholders and who are at the heart of this controversy.
It is hard to say when fair trade entered the Brazilian coffee arena, since so many certification organizations exist. It is certain that Ipanema Coffees in Alfenas, Minas Gerais was amongst the first seven coffee plantations to receive fair trade certification through Fair Trade USA's project Fair Trade For All in 2012. The first annual International Fair Trade and Organic Coffee Conference was held in Brazil in 2000 with producers, consumers and technical experts from around the world gathered to discuss the future of fair trade and organic coffee production.
An elaborated history of coffee in Brazil is apparent in the timeline of coffee production in Brazil made for this very purpose.
As seen, when scrolling through the timeline, many factors are to be considered when trying to understand the role of coffee in a Brazilian context.
First of all it is necessary to point out that coffee isn't native to Brazil, meaning that coffee farmers had to acquire knowledge on proper farming as they went along. Numerous regions were used for coffee cultivation in the past, but are now considered unsuitable for growing coffee crops due to the way events, like climate disasters (the great frosts), were handled by the producers in these areas.
Since Brazil is the number one supplier of coffee in the world and its climate can be pretty harsh on coffee crops, climate disasters have an enormous impact on the world coffee prices. In the winter of 1975 a frost, later to be known as The Black Frost of 1975 hit the country and destroyed 76% of the crops due to be harvested during summer of 1976/1977. This loss in produce caused the world price on coffee to double!
Coffee has been grown on large-scale farms, plantations or fazendas in Brazil since 1770. At first this meant an increase in slavery and many slaves were transported to Brazil from Africa to work on these farms which is apparent in Brazilian demographic today. As slavery was abolished in Europe and USA and the consumers had increasing demands for coffee, a decline in slavery happened on Brazilian coffee plantations to match demands from their buyers in the North. But not an overwhelming decline, one must assume, since the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888 almost destroyed the coffee industry. New immigration laws were put in place and migrants came, mostly from southern Europe, to work on the plantations instead. This can also be traced in the current demographic. The abolition of slavery also led to an emerging group of small-scale coffee farmers, the ones we call smallholders and who are at the heart of this controversy.
It is hard to say when fair trade entered the Brazilian coffee arena, since so many certification organizations exist. It is certain that Ipanema Coffees in Alfenas, Minas Gerais was amongst the first seven coffee plantations to receive fair trade certification through Fair Trade USA's project Fair Trade For All in 2012. The first annual International Fair Trade and Organic Coffee Conference was held in Brazil in 2000 with producers, consumers and technical experts from around the world gathered to discuss the future of fair trade and organic coffee production.