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Brazil Wildfire Coffee Crops
Coffee producer Silvio Elias de Almeida tosses a handful of damaged coffee beans during an inspection of his plantation consumed by wildfires in a rural area of Caconde, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Brazil drought punishes coffee farms and threatens to push prices even higher

Brazilian coffee farmers are grappling with above-average temperatures as the country, the world’s largest coffee producer, faces its worst drought in more than seven decades

By GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA and DEE-ANN DURBIN
Published - Sep 20, 2024, 10:23 AM ET
Last Updated - Dec 16, 2024, 07:03 PM EST

CACONDE, Brazil (AP) — Silvio Almeida’s coffee plantation sits at an ideal altitude on a Brazilian hillside, whose clay-rich soil does well at retaining moisture from rainfall and a nearby reservoir.

Lately, though, water is scarce on Almeida's modest farm in Caconde, a town in one of Sao Paulo state’s key growing regions. He can’t get his coffee to grow the way it should.

In Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer, Almeida and other farmers have started grappling with the nation's worst drought in more than seven decades and above-average temperatures. Almeida expected to harvest 120 sacks of coffee beans this harvest season, but instead managed just 100.

“Given the conditions here, the 2025 crop is already affected," he told The Associated Press, pointing to a part of his plantation where flower buds died before blooming. "I won’t say it’s doomed, because with God anything is possible. But based on the situation, it’s already compromised."

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