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For years, climate change has irrevocably changed coffee-producing countries. Farmers must reckon with rising temperatures and unpredictable rainfall patterns, including droughts and floods that can severely damage coffee plants, resulting in lower yields and lower-quality cherries. In an industry where coffee prices are already volatile and sometimes lower than the cost of farming, climate change has had a devastating effect on many producers.
Coffee, especially the arabica species, is particularly vulnerable to uncertainty caused by weather fluctuations. Farmers are looking for ways to cope: some are moving production to higher elevation land in search of cooler temperatures; others are planting more resilient coffee varieties in the hope they can better handle temperature changes.
In Brazil, more and more farmers are turning to arabica’s hardier cousin, robusta, according to a Bloomberg report by Renata Carlos Daou. Although arabica continues to dominate—Brazil is the world’s largest arabica grower—robusta production has increased by 81% over the past 10 years. In just the last growing season, robusta production jumped nearly 22% compared to the previous harvest.
Most of this switch can be attributed to the pressure farmers face due to climate change. “It wasn’t necessarily demand that resulted in the growth of robusta production,” said Fernando Maximiliano from the financial services firm StoneX. “In reality, climate problems and losses in arabica were the main factors that contributed to stimulating robusta growth.”
Robusta is generally considered more resilient than arabica. But it’s worth noting that research from 2020 found that robusta may not be the climate-change-hardy savior it’s often been portrayed as. The study found that robusta’s optimal growing temperature is lower than previously thought, and that every 1°C increase reduces yields by about 14%.
Climate change isn’t the only reason Brazilian farmers are making the switch. Robusta plants produce more coffee cherries, potentially leading to higher profits. And while robusta has generally been considered inferior in taste, farmers and researchers have been working to improve it.
The hope is that this will lead to increased sales: “Improving quality allows you to increase the percentage of robusta in blends around the world,” Marcio Ferreira from Brazil’s national exporter group Cecafe told Reuters.
Read more on Brazil’s robusta reinvention via Bloomberg here or via Fortune here.
Photo by PROJETO CAFÉ GATO-MOURISCO on Unsplash
