Drought reshapes Brazil farming

DROUGHT hit coffee farmers in Brazil hard last year, driving up trees and driving global prices to record highs. But Rodrigo Brondani is expecting a bumper harvest.

- 

Brondani's giant plantation on the savannas of Brazil's northeastern state of Bahia looks very different to the mountainside farms and estates typical in coffee cultivation across much of Latin America.

As he inspects rows of plants laden with green coffee cherries, a long irrigation arm passes overhead nearby. It traces a wide circle above the trees from a central pivot, like the hand of a clock.

"This is looking very good," said Brondani, the lead manager at the loha farm, which has 900 hectares of irrigated coffee fields -- more than 20 times bigger than the average coffee farm in Brazil.

This kind of industrial-scale farm with access to irrigation is becoming increasingly important in meeting global coffee demand in Brazil -- the world's largest grower. Most farms in the western part of Bahia -- a new frontier for coffee growing in Brazil -- are now irrigated.

At current market prices, the farm's most recent harvest, ended in October, would be worth around $17 million. Coffee growers have typically depended on Brazil's abundant spring and summer rains. Drought was rare and only around 30% of coffee fields are irrigated. But irrigation can be costly, depending on the distance from a water source and the depth of the water table.

The glossy plants stand in stark contrast to the desiccated trees seen on many drought-hit coffee farms last year, when the rain did come, it was too late to save the 2025 coffee crop.