Brazil’s Government May Stockpile Coffee in 2012 to Help Farmers
( 9:17 30/03/2012 )
Brazil, the world’s biggest coffeeproducer, may stockpile beans to help farmers as production thisyear climbs to a record, according to the Agriculture Ministry. Coffee output will probably rise to a record in the 2012-13season starting in July as trees enter the higher-yielding halfof a two-year cycle, the government said. Production is expectedto be 49 million to 52.3 million bags, exceeding the high of48.5 million bags in 2002, according to a Jan. 10 report fromConab, the government’s crop forecasting agency. A bag of coffeeweighs 60 kilograms (132 pounds).
“What we can do to adjust the balance is take the productoff the market, find more markets to sell it, or utilize it inthe domestic market,” Mendes Ribeiro Filho, the country’sagriculture minister, said in an interview in London today.
Brazil may overtake the U.S. as the world’s top coffeeconsumer, he said. The South American country consumed 18.9million bags of coffee in 2010, up 4 percent from a yearearlier, according to the London-based International CoffeeOrganization. That compares with 21.8 million bags used in theU.S., the biggest consumer and an increase of 1.6 percent, ICOdata show. Source : Bloomberg
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