Brazil is South America’s most influential and economically powerful country and one of the world’s largest economies. It also produces over a third of the world’s coffee, with over 5 million people in the country employed in the cultivation or harvest of over 3 billion coffee plants. The strength or weakness of the global coffee market is largely governed by what happens in Brazil, such is the size of its yearly harvest. El Nino, the weather system that dictates climatic conditions in the country during the summer months, also has a major impact on the yearly coffee harvest. Brazil have an average annual rainfall of 1,500mm, but depending on this key weather system this number can fluctuate dramatically.
Coffee was introduced to Brazil in 1720 in the southern state of Paraná and has since become the powerhouse of the coffee world, accounting for more than a third of all coffee produced.