Farmers in Brazil who had their coffee fields seriously damaged, by the worst frost in 27 years a month ago have begun removing dead trees to make way for fresh plantings, with some intending to convert some of the affected area to grains.
In July, the world’s largest producer of coffee was hit the last twenty-seven years. The severe frost ravaged the top coffee area in Brazil, Minas Gerais statel and caused a great deal of damages to the affected fields. A substantial portion of Brazil’s coffee plantations have been destroyed by severe frost, with up to 10% of the crop lost. The situation is described by coffee farmers and experts as an unexpected one.
The National Supply Company (Conab) estimates that the last week in July alone, frosts affected between 150,000 and 200,000 hectares, or about 11% of the total area of coffee plantations. This damage, according to experts, has put prospective production in jeopardy for the next two seasons, and is expected to push the global coffee market into a supply shortfall.
Farmers in Minas Gerais statel are therefore trimming frost-damaged trees and, in some cases, removing trees entirely using tractors after the plant has perished. Some of these farmers are also switching to grains such as com and soybean to benefit from the high prices of grain in the next year.
An agronomist with the Procafe foundation in Minas Gerais, Jose Braz Matiello, said farmers tend to plant grains in low-lying areas, to avoid running the risk of having coffee hit by frosts again in the future.
Most of the farmers have hope in the rains that are yet to arrive and have therefore embarked on the best pruning of trees method to patiently await the rains that is expected to cause the recovery of the coffee fields.
Mario Alvarenga, a coffee farmer in Minas Gerais statel who experienced 18% damage of the frost hit said, “You don’t find any moisture in the soil up to 1 meter (40 inches) deep. Crops that were not hit by frosts are withering,” adding that, there’s hope the rains to arrive by the end of the month will lead to the recovery of the trees.
A coffee farmer in Patrocinio, Airton Conçalves also closed that farmers are resulting to the removal of the dead trees because they have no insurance on their coffee crops unlike farmers who do like himself. He said, “Many farmers are already taking trees out. We can see from the road they are piling up the dead trees.
“There will be some areas migrating to grains. A friend of mine that has 350 hectares (865 acres) decided to lease part of the land for soybean planting,” Conçalves added.
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