The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture’s manager in charge of coffee, Silvio Farnesi, has said that the government has approved the importation of robusta coffees for the first time in history, including those from Vietnam, in order to meet domestic demand for instant coffee production.
The approval on February 15 forced imported robusta to be subject to a 2% tariff.
Brazil plans to import one million sacks of coffee, each weighing 60kg, by this May with a maximum 250,000 sacks per month.
As the world’s top green coffee producer and instant coffee exporter, Brazil produced 49.6 million sacks of coffee, up 14.8% annually. However, robusta, accounting for 17% of the total production, was packed into 8.3 million sacks, down 25% from 2015 and hitting a record low for the past 12 years.
Arabica is mainly used for roasted and ground coffee production while robusta is for instant coffee.
NDO/VNA
