The Story of Robusta & Arabica Coffee

Everyone knows that Brazil is the world’s largest coffee exporter, but which country is second? The answer seems quite surprising: Vietnam.

The Financial Times recently published an article with quite interesting debates surrounding the two types of coffee, Robusta and Arabica. The author of the article is a leading expert in commodity analysis at VM Group, a commodity research consultancy in London. Brazil is number one, Vietnam is number two.

Brazil and Vietnam account for the majority of the world’s coffee production, especially these are also the two major countries that mainly supply the two main types of coffee, Arabica and Robusta. Brazil is the world’s largest producer of Arabica coffee, while Vietnam is the leading producer of Robusta coffee.

Everyone has their own preferences, some like Arabica coffee, others like Robusta coffee, but for true coffee enthusiasts, Arabica is probably the best choice. Just like any other commodity, the relationship between supply and demand is the decisive factor for price. Therefore, the higher price of Arabica shows that the demand for this type of coffee is also higher than that of Robusta. In fact, there are only 2 main types of coffee: Robusta and Arabica, but from these 2 types, people can process many different types with different qualities.

Why is Arabica preferred over Robusta?

This depends on each person’s taste. Arabica is considered to have a better taste, less astringent, but more bitter than Robusta. Many people like to drink Robusta instant coffee, but when they switch to Arabica, most of them do not want to use Robusta anymore. Robusta can be considered a type of coffee with lower quality, but it has the advantage of being very suitable for the weather. Normally, this type of coffee will be harvested after 2-3 years, while Arabica coffee needs 4-5 years. Arabica coffee is also a difficult plant and quite sensitive to the climate, it requires the temperature and average annual rainfall to meet the standards to produce high yields. Meanwhile, Robusta coffee can adapt to many different environmental conditions.

Weather conditions affect crop yields.

The world’s average annual coffee output is calculated in two ways: by bag – usually 60kg/bag, or by ton.

Arabica coffee output in the period 2010 – 2011 is forecast to reach 86 million bags, meeting the demand of 80 million bags, while for robusta coffee, the supply is 54 million bags, the demand is 51 million bags.

The increase in demand for coffee is almost unaffected by the global economic recession, or in other words, people still do not want to give up their favorite daily drink. On the other hand, this growth rate also tends to slow down, averaging about 1-1.5%/year.

The coffee industry still plays an important role in many emerging markets around the world. In addition to Vietnam, major robusta coffee producing countries include Brazil, Indonesia, India and Uganda. Colombia is the second largest producer of Arabica coffee in the world after Brazil. In addition, Central American countries are also major coffee producers.

Weather plays a decisive role in crop yields, and the recent incident in Colombia can be seen as a typical example of the consequences caused by bad weather.

In the previous two seasons, the country’s coffee production remained high at 12 million bags, however, heavy rains in late 2008 caused major obstacles to harvesting and transporting coffee. As a result, Colombia’s export output decreased by 1/3. At the same time, the price of Colombian Arabica coffee also increased sharply as processors were forced to look for alternative sources of raw materials to ensure quality. Brazil is also a country that is often affected by frost in the winter from June to August, and this makes the price of Arabica coffee even higher.

However, the situation has been on the decline in recent years, since the early 1990s, with no serious frosts; partly because the consumer market has shown signs of slowing down; partly because coffee growing has expanded to other parts of Brazil less affected by harsh winter weather.

Vietnam benefits from the weather.

In recent years, the rainy season has been quite regular, so Vietnam’s decision to develop robusta coffee instead of arabica (although Vietnam has also produced a small amount of this type of coffee in the past) was completely correct, because growing robusta coffee is as simple as its name “robust” – healthy. In the future, what will happen to supply, demand and coffee prices? Global warming – a major concern for all mankind today – will be a major threat, especially to Arabica coffee – a plant that prefers cool weather, but cannot adapt to very low temperatures. However, this is not only a threat to this type of coffee, but also a major danger to the prospects of many other agricultural products. In the long term, when supply cannot meet demand, prices will escalate. This has not happened yet, but the time when commodity prices can “cool down” thanks to technologies that increase production is still a long way off.

The rise of Vietnam.

In the 19th century, Vietnam hardly produced coffee. However, recently, Vietnam has quickly risen to the top position in the production of this commodity. The motivation to become a major producer of robusta coffee in the world is the Party’s decision to promote economic growth thoroughly. Vietnamese politicians have recognized the opportunity in the instant coffee production and trading market. This is a fairly fast-growing industry. Therefore, Vietnam has increased support for domestic coffee factories.

However, coffee after being produced is mainly for consumption in the external market, where the main beverage is still tea. In contrast, about 50% of Brazil’s Arabica coffee production is consumed domestically, and domestic consumption is growing strongly compared to the world average.

Collected.