Coffee arrives in Belém, Pará, Brazil through French Guinea, where it had previously been introduced by European colonizers. The story goes that Sergeant Major Francisco de Melo Palheta wanted to profit from the coffee market. He was sent from Brazil to settle a border dispute between French and Dutch Guiana. Whilst on this diplomatic assignment he managed to seduce the French governor's wife into giving him the well-guarded coffee seedlings and he smuggled the seeds into Brazil.
Coffee crops were planted around Rio de Janeiro, which caused partial deforestation of Tijuca. These were the first examples of plantation-grown coffee in Brazil.
This first ever export of coffee from Brazil was at an insignificant quantity of 79 kilos.
Before the outbreak of the War of Independence, Haiti was the world's largest coffee producer. Taking advantage of the unstable situation in Haiti, Brazil expanded the production of coffee and began exporting more regularly.
Less than 30 years after the initial export of coffee from Brazil, exports had risen to 80,000 kilos, an increase of 101,166%!
Cultivation, initially established around Rio de Janeiro, became the backbone of a new economic cycle in Brazil, and plantations around Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais quickly grew in size.
American and European demand for coffee increased and with it Brazilian exports.Coffee accounted for up to 43% of the total Brazilian export in this period.
Frost created incalculable damages to crops west of São Paulo, and numerous regions later became considered unsuitable for coffee cultivation.
Growing production is supported by governmentally enforced regulations to ensure fixed minimum prices for producers.
The abolition of slavery in Brazil almost led to a collapse of the coffee industry. Government-enforced immigration policies made settling in Brazil easier, and led to a revitalization of plantations primarily with European immigrants working in the fields. This event also led to the emergence of a group of small-scale coffee producers.
Consisting of an export of 5.6 million bags.
Brazil supplies approximately 80% of the world's coffee.
The Wall Street Crash had a great impact on the Brazilian 'coffee economy'. Prices fell drastically and plantation owners could feel it.
Coffee accounts for 60% of Brazil's total exports, despite government attempts to decrease single-crop dependency
As part of an attempt to minimize domestic surplus production of coffee, Instituto Brasileiro de Café (IBC) ordered plantation crops destroyed.
The Brazilian Coffee Industry Association is created and is considered one of the most important regulatory institutions of the coffee industry in Brazil.
A devastating frost affected 76% of the crops due to be harvested in 1976/1977 causing the coffee price to double.
Change in quotas from International Coffee Association (ICA) based on consumer demands means an increase in value of milder coffees at the expense of traditional varieties. Brazil refuses to lower its quotas out of fear of a reduction in value of market shares.
The expiry of international regulatory agreements, involving those of the International Coffee Association, forced through by SAPs, means that coffee enters the free market and becomes subject to the forces of supply and demand. Prices drop.
While not as devastating as the Black Frost of 1975, this event still causes half the 1995/96 harvest to fail and hereby pushes worldwide coffee prices up.
The longest period of low coffee prices ever recorded. This has severe consequences for coffee producing countries.
Conference with producers and consumers from around the world and techno-economical experts gathered to discuss the future of fair trade and organic coffee production.
In mid-2011 the prices for coffee reaches the highest they had been for 34 years
"Fazenda Nossa Senhora de Fatima" in Minas Gerais becomes the first coffee plantation to receive certification though Fair Trade USA's program "Fair Trade for All."
Coffee exports are 10.3% of Brazil's total export and coffee production is therefore still considered to be (one of) the most important industries in the country.
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) estimates a 6% decrease in the 2014/2015 harvest due to drought that especially hit plantations in Minas Gerais.
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