The average monthly growth was 79,000 bags of coffee (60 kilograms – 132 lbs each) per month. The aim of Brazil is to consume 21 million bags of coffee a year until 2010, which should prove true.
According to the assessment of the director at the Department of Coffee of Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, Lucas Ferreira, the increased productivity will contribute to the outflow of national production, thus ensuring sustainability to coffee farmers.
"The accumulated result for volume consumed this year already represents 53% of the grain crop, i.e., more than half our production," says Ferreira.
"Brazil alone consumes the equivalent to 39% of all coffee consumed by all European countries, including those of Eastern Europe." Brazil is the largest producer and exporter of the grain, and its per capita consumption, at 5.52 kilograms (12.17 lbs) per inhabitant per year, is already equivalent to that of Germany, one of the world's biggest buyers of the commodity.
Anba