Coffee production in Brazil is responsible for about a third of all coffee,making Brazil by far the world's largest producer, a position the country has held for the last 150 years. In 2007, 2,249,010 metric tonnes was produced,80% of it was arabica(
species of coffee).Although Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer, Brazilian firms do not dominate the international coffee industry. The country's
domestic coffee market is dominated by two US coffee processors, Sara Lee and Kraft Foods.
History
Coffee seeds had to be planted in the country as the plant is not indigenous to the Americas. The first coffee bush was planted in Brazil in 1727 in the state of Pará. According to the legend, the government of Brazil was looking for a cut of the coffee market and sent Lt. Col. Francisco de Melo Palheta to smuggle coffee seeds from French Guiana, ostensibly to mediate a border dispute. Instead of turning to the fortress-like coffee farms, Palheta used his personal attractions to persuade the First Lady of French Guiana. Unable to resist his charms, she gave him a bouquet spiked with seedlings at a state farewell dinner before he left for Brazil.
The coffee industry was dependent on slaves, in the first half of the 19th century 1.5 million slaves were imported to Brazil to fill the needs of slave labor on
the coffee plantation in the southeast. As the foreign slave trade was finally abolished in Brazil 1850, the plantation owners instead turned to European immigrants to meet the demand of labor.
