Brazil: Amazon Robusta coffee gains space in the field and in the market

The Amazon Robusta coffee, a variety “born” in the state of Rondônia, is gaining space in farms and the Brazilian market.

Parallel to the producers’ increased interest in cultivating it, the roasting industry has increased this variety in its blends.

By 2023, coffee production in Rondônia – Brazil’s second-largest producer of the Cephora species (which includes Conilon and Robusta) – is estimated to range between 3.1 million and 3.4 million bags, according to Conab and StoneX projections, in that order.

Conab’s latest estimate, released this month, points to an increase in production in the state in the current harvest of almost 12% compared to the 2022 season.

The Canephora species differs from the Arabica coffee (the most exported by Brazil) in cultivation because the plants have different flavors.

Experts explain that Arabica coffee is sweeter and smoother, with a greater variety of aromas, while the Caneforas tend to be bitter – appreciated by those who like intense coffees – and have a higher caffeine content.

Espírito Santo, the Brazilian state leader in Conilon production, may see a 14.4% reduction in the current harvest due to climatic reasons, dropping to 10.575 million bags, according to Conab.

In Bahia, the third on the podium of Conilon producers, the harvest is expected to advance 6.1%, to 2.475 million bags, according to the autarchy.

“Rondônia producers have invested heavily in technologies, and improvements in post-harvest processes have contributed to the acceptance of Amazon Robusta,” observes Fernando Maximiliano, StoneX analyst.

The state of Rondônia originated and produced only the Amazon Robusta, a hybrid resulting from the cross between the pure Robusta (Vietnam is the main global supplier of this type of grain) and the Conilon, according to Embrapa Coffee researcher Marcelo Curitiba.

The variety was so named because it adapts well to the altitude and climate conditions typical of the Amazon region.

According to Curitiba, this coffee gained commercial scale in 2005, and planting intensified as of 2010.

For now, the main producers in the country are in Rondônia.

Its main qualities in the field are vegetative vigor and productivity.

“They fall less, which helps in harvesting and the use of mechanization, and they do not present the main disease of the canephora coffee plant, which is orange rust,” adds the Embrapa researcher.

As the coffee growers add technology to the plantations, the plant delivers more productivity.

According to a book published by Embrapa researchers, each hectare of Amazon Robusta produced about 16 bags in 2010. Today it is about 45 bags per hectare, on average.

“We are still far from the volume this coffee tree can deliver. By adding technology, the potential is 120 bags per hectare,” says Juan Travain, a tourism entrepreneur who started producing the variety five years ago in Rondônia.

High productivity and sensory quality were the characteristics that attracted Travain.

However, most producers of Amazon Robusta are small-sized, and many of those taking over the family farms are descendants in their 40s who are interested in modernizing their cultivation.

Hand pruning and fertigation are among the affordable technologies coffee growers employ.

Pruning is fundamental for the Amazon Robusta tree to produce, says Edson Costalonga Filho from Espírito Santo.

He decided to cultivate the variety on his farm in Espírito Santo a few years ago and is not the first to “test” it outside its original environment.

The plant is also already in some spaces in Bahia, sources say.

Costalonga has identified three sensitivities of Amazon robusta, which can affect a whole year’s production if the farmer gets it wrong: using the wrong amount of nitrogen, lack of water during flowering, and pruning after harvest.

Getting the pruning wrong, says the coffee grower, can cause the plant to vegetate a lot [grow] without producing coffee for an entire season.

According to him, the trips to exchange information with producers from Rondon are constant.

“But if you take good care of the plant, the productive drop from one year to the next is no more than 10%,” he says.

Coffee trees have biennials (productive oscillations every two years so the plants can rest).

Edson Costalonga states that the Conilon production drops about 20%.

In the case of Arabica, the oscillation in harvest volume between crops is much greater.

With information from Valor

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