Brazil Rains May Hurt Coffee Quality, Hinder Harvest This Year

By Carlos Caminada

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Unusually heavy rainfall in the southeast of Brazil, the world's biggest coffee producer, is causing an irregular second flowering of the trees, which may hurt bean quality and hinder harvesting this year.

Some areas in the states of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo, which account for 83 percent of Brazil's output, have received two times more rain than the average, the University of Sao Paulo's Margarete Boteon said. The excess rain is causing new coffee buds to blossom, just as beans from the November flowering are starting to form, she said.

``The rains are way above normal levels,'' Boteon, head of coffee research at the university's agricultural commodities unit, said in a telephone interview from Piracicaba, Brazil. ``Coffee flowering at this time of the year is unheard of.''

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