World’s Oranges, Coffee at Risk as Brazil Runs Out of Water
- Rainy season was driest in decades in key Center-South region
- Arabica-coffee and orange are among crops threatened
Photographer: Victor Moriyama/Bloomberg
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Brazil, the world’s biggest exporter of coffee, sugar and orange juice, just had a rainy season that brought hardly any rain.
Soils are parched and river levels are low in the nation’s Center-South region, a powerhouse of agricultural output. The drought is so severe that farmers are worried they’ll run out of the water reserves that help keep crops alive over the next several months, the country’s dry season.