Robusta Coffee Harvest Starts in Espirito Santo, Brazil

Farmers of robusta coffee in the main producing state in Brazil, the second-biggest grower of the variety, have started harvesting this year’s crop, according to Cepea, a University of Sao Paulo research group.

Farmers in Espirito Santo state began picking the 2012-13 crop this month and harvesting will be under way on most farms by the end of April, beginning of May, Margarete Boteon, an analyst at Cepea, said in a report yesterday.

“Producers from Espirito Santo are focused on drying coffee beans,” Boteon said. “Only a few producers have coffee beans of the new crop to trade and for immediate delivery.”

The harvest in Rondonia state, Brazil’s second-biggest producing area, began in February, according to Cepea. Field works there are advancing at “a good pace,” the group wrote in the report, citing its own survey of agents involved in coffee producing and trading.

Brazil’s robusta coffee production will rise to 16.5 million bags in 2012-13 from 14.3 million bags in 2011-12, Terra Forte Exportacao e Importacao de Cafe Ltda., the country’s second-largest exporter, estimated in February. A bag of coffee weighs 60 kilograms (132 pounds).

Robusta coffee for July delivery was down 0.2 percent to $2,010 a metric ton by 9:26 a.m. on NYSE Liffe in London.

To contact the reporter on this story: Isis Almeida in London at Ialmeida3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at Ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.