This group comprises a diverse range of companies: from multinationals such as Cofco International, Louis Dreyfus and Mitsui & Co, to large national exporters such as Unicaf\u00e9 and Trist\u00e3o Trading, as well as 14 small producer cooperatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Guindani, the trend has been for large producers to take the lead in meeting this Chinese demand. Much of the market, she says, seeks high volumes at low prices, with little attention currently given to socio-environmental factors relating to the product. But she sees room for smaller businesses like hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ra\u00edzes do Campo is betting on specialty and certified coffees, such as organic and agroecological coffees. The company works with about 2,000 cooperative families in different regions of Brazil, exporting 120 tonnes of Arabica coffee annually to Chinese coffee shops interested in specialty beans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a small volume and high added value for very specialised coffee shops,\u201d Guindani tells Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The GACC\u2019s new approvals come at a time when Brazil and China are deepening trade relations. Chinese consumers are exhibiting a growing appetite<\/a> for coffee, while the United States, still the largest market, is imposing tariff barriers on the bean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the past five years, Brazilian coffee exports to China have more than quintupled: from less than 10,000 tonnes in 2020 to more than 55,000 in 2024, with a peak of 79,000 in 2023, according to Dialogue Earth\u2019s analysis of foreign trade data issued by the Brazilian government. For now, China ranks 12th among the main markets \u2013 far behind leaders such as the United States and Germany, which each imported more than 440,000 tonnes last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the current trade war initiated by the US may change this scenario, as it has imposed<\/a> a 50% tariff on Brazilian products, including coffee. Until 2024, the country had led coffee imports for seven of the 10 preceding years. In August this year, however, when the measure came into force, purchases fell to their lowest level in a decade for that month, according to foreign trade data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecaf\u00e9) states that the authorisation of new companies to export to China does not mean \u2013 for now at least \u2013 that the country will fill any gap left by the United States. In a statement,<\/a> the organisation\u2019s president, M\u00e1rcio Ferreira, said the measure \u201cdoes not necessarily imply an increase in shipments\u201d and stressed this progress should occur \u201cnaturally, over the coming years and decades\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mariana Bahia, executive director of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Brazil, also takes a cautious view. She tells Dialogue Earth that Brazilian coffee is already establishing itself as a \u201cstrategic item\u201d for diversifying commodities exported to China. On the other hand, she explains that the Chinese market is still emerging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the short and medium term, it is unlikely to reach the same scale and importance that soybeans and meat have for bilateral trade,\u201d she says. China is the leading purchaser<\/a> of these items from Brazil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Coffee, on the other hand, has been gaining ground among young urbanites in China who are interested in new products, according to Bahia. She explains that, for this generation, the drink has become part of their routine, associated with convenience, socialising and status. \u201cNow, the habit is spreading to other age groups,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A symbol of this popularisation is Luckin Coffee. Founded in 2017, it has become the largest chain in China<\/a>, with more than 22,000 stores and a reported<\/a> 2024 net revenue of USD 4.7 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brazil became part of this expansion in 2023, when Luckin partnered with ApexBrasil and visited producers in the western state of Rond\u00f4nia to learn about and purchase Amazonian coffee. In June 2024, Brazil signed an agreement to supply 120,000 tonnes of coffee to the chain annually. Several months later, the deal was expanded to 240,000 tonnes by 2029, for an estimated combined total of USD 3 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis partnership is just the beginning,\u201d said<\/a> Luckin Coffee\u2019s CEO Jinyi Guo at the signing of the agreement in November. \u201cIn the future, we want to further expand our collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While large companies have competitive advantages when it comes to bilateral agreements, smaller Brazilian coffee producers are also enthusiastic about the emerging Chinese market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dialogue Earth talked to Roberto Carlos do Nascimento, president of the Southern Minas Gerais Campesinos Cooperative (Camponesa), which unites several campesino<\/em> (peasant farmer) settlements in the state of Minas Gerais. \u201cChina is a country with a very large population. Although coffee is a very recent thing, any 1% growth means a lot for a given product,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Camponesa has already sent samples of its Guai\u00ed coffee \u2013 an organic, agroecological line \u2013 to Ra\u00edzes do Campo for testing in the Chinese market. The beans are supplied by its partner, Quilombo Campo Grande, which produces up to 12,000 bags of Arabica coffee annually. Camponesa purchases 1,000 of these bags, allocating 10% of that volume to Ra\u00edzes do Campo for sale in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are discovering the ideal flavour and aroma for the Chinese market,\u201d says Nascimento.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the United States, Brazilian coffee has a strong presence in Europe. Between January and August this year, almost half of the bean exports were destined for the continent, according<\/a> to Cecaf\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the main market for Coopfam<\/a>, a cooperative of family-run farms in and around the municipality of Po\u00e7o Fundo, also in Minas Gerais. Coopfam sends more than 90% of its production to the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland. To meet European buyers\u2019 increasing sustainability requirements, its 500 coffee growers have acquired Fairtrade<\/a> certification, which requires fair remuneration, agricultural practices that do not degrade the environment, and for each coffee batch to be traceable. Among those coffee growers, 100 also have organic production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA portion of the income from each bag of coffee must be reinvested in improving productivity, preserving the environment and investing in social projects in the community,\u201d says Rodrigo Ara\u00fajo, Coopfam\u2019s commercial coordinator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2024, Coopfam began the process of qualifying for export to China. To Ara\u00fajo, the country represents \u201cinfinite potential\u201d. In his opinion, however, Coopfam\u2019s socio-environmental certifications are unlikely to be an advantage because they were \u201ccreated in Europe for European consumers\u201d and are less valued by the Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bahia, from the Chamber of Commerce, says Chinese coffee certification does include environmental requirements: \u201cThe GACC sets maximum limits for pesticide residues, requiring exporters to use only approved inputs and follow proper cultivation and application practices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guindani from Ra\u00edzes do Campo, which focuses on small-volume and agroecological exports, has been through this certification process. She says that while it is bureaucratic, laborious and expensive, it also does not require strict environmental certifications. In absence of this, she fears growing coffee markets for large exporters could present \u201ca major environmental risk\u201d. She adds that new demand for coffee from traditional growing regions like Minas Gerais and Esp\u00edrito Santo comes at a time when climate change is also adding pressure, raising questions over how to adapt \u2013 and potentially migrate farming operations<\/a> \u2013 to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ara\u00fajo acknowledges Coopfam would need to expand its production if it was to seek to grow its shipments to the Chinese market \u2013 a challenge, considering that stocks have been hit<\/a> by a year of frosts and two years of severe droughts in Minas Gerais. Still, he believes that Brazilian legislation is sufficient to curb coffee-related deforestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2023, the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) noted<\/a> that, after 2008, no significant deforestation had been detected on 99% of the 115,000 Minas Gerais coffee farms registered with Brazil\u2019s Rural Environmental Registry (CAR). The data was produced by the Minas Gerais State Forestry Institute\u2019s (IEF) native vegetation monitoring programme. These findings qualify the region\u2019s coffee production as \u201cdeforestation-free\u201d under European Union classifications. In addition, UFMG found that about a third of those coffee farms operating in rural areas had more native vegetation than the amount mandated by the Brazilian Forest Code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nascimento, from Camponesa, says that it should not be necessary to open up new areas to meet growth in the Chinese market, highlighting the Brazilian government\u2019s plan to recover 40 million hectares<\/a> of degraded pastureland over 10 years and make it productive, including for coffee cultivation. To achieve this goal, the country is seeking<\/a> a partnership with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But even with such plans, Nascimento acknowledges that pressures from any added demand, coupled with a general lack of environmental oversight in Brazilian agribusiness, means that the risk of expansion of the agricultural frontier still exists. He says that authorities responsible for monitoring, inspecting and approving agricultural expansions \u201cneed to be increasingly strong and present to curb these irregular advances and growth\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With shipments to China five times higher in five years, small businesses see opportunities but struggle for space as big producers take the lead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40000263,"featured_media":60104458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[763],"tags":[521,50040317,600],"hashtags":[],"country":[50000021,20000110],"class_list":["post-60104370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-coffee","tag-farming","tag-trade","country-brazil","country-china"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBrazilian coffee winning over China<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"rows](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/spreading-coffee-beans-to-dry_small-farm_Minas-Gerais_Brazil_Raizes-do-Campo.jpg\")
<\/div>What about small producers?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
China is a country with a very large population. Any 1% growth means a lot for a given product<\/blockquote>Roberto Carlos do Nascimento, president of the Southern Minas Gerais Campesinos Cooperative (Camponesa)<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Green certification and growth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"sun](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/view-coffee-trees-small-farm_Minas-Gerais_Brazil_Raizes-do-Campo.jpeg\")
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