With the coffee market changing, Robusta producers invest in quality

São Paulo (Reuters) – Amid the hustle and bustle of a sophisticated café on the elegant Rua Oscar Freire, in São Paulo, a barista prepares an atypical espresso. Extra creamy, with the aroma of cocoa nibs, the coffee does not have the characteristic acidity so appreciated in coffees made with the best Arabica beans.

That’s because this premium espresso is made with 100% Robusta beans, once a cheap ingredient, most often used for instant coffee.

“It’s a coffee that produces a wonderful crema… and has much more chocolatey notes,” said Marco Kerkmeester, co-founder of the Santo Grão coffee shop chain, highlighting the appeal of a drink called, in a good-natured way, “0% Arabica”.

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Changes on the farm

With climate change threatening arabica beans, traditionally used in specialty coffees, Brazilian Robusta producers are investing in harvesting and drying techniques to produce a high-quality bean that will appeal to the most demanding consumers.

Brazil is the world’s second largest producer of Robusta, after Vietnam, and the main producer of Arabica.

However, a 2022 study found that more than three-quarters of Brazil’s best land for growing Arabica coffee could become unsuitable for cultivation by 2050 due to rising temperatures and drought.

With global coffee prices and consumption reaching record highs this year amid trade tensions and extreme weather events, premium Robusta beans also offer roasters a way to reduce the cost of more expensive espresso and arabica blends.

“My father is from the mountain region where they already produce high-quality arabica,” said Lucas Venturim, a coffee farmer who produces about 805 kilometers away, in the State of Espírito Santo, whose beans were used in that espresso served on a corner of Oscar Freire.

“He never accepted that conilon is bad because it is conilon. Arabica is also not good because it is arabica. Then he put this in our heads — if you also produce with this different treatment, you will also achieve a different quality in conilon”, revealed Venturim.

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Along the same lines, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), which sets global standards for specialty coffees, this year revised its evaluation course to attract potential evaluators of Arabica and Robusta beans.

Now, anyone trained to evaluate high-quality coffee will be able to accurately describe and award deserving beverages, regardless of species or bean type.

“We noticed the trend,” said Kim Ionescu, director of strategic development at SCA, citing, for example, growing consumer demand for premium Robusta in Southeast Asia. “It seems that species is not the criterion we should use to define what is special or not.”

In 2026, the SCA will begin revising the lexicon of flavor descriptors used by coffee evaluators to include attributes associated with high-quality Robusta, such as aromatic spices.

Brands like Nguyen Coffee Supply, which offers quality Robusta from Vietnam, have already made their way in the US, while coffee shops from London to Berlin are highlighting Robusta’s refined qualities.

Modern dryers

The opportunity began a transformation in Espírito Santo, the state that concentrates the majority of Brazilian Robusta production, which now prioritizes not only productivity, but also the highest quality.

The State intends to produce 1.5 million 60-kg bags of special Robusta annually by 2032, an increase from the current 10,000 bags, according to a presentation by the State Department of Agriculture, seen by Reuters.

This represents about a tenth of the state’s current production, requiring broader adoption of best post-harvest practices already common among arabica producers, according to José Roberto Gonçalves, corporate agricultural manager at Cooabriel, Brazil’s main Robusta cooperative.

In recent years, Cooabriel has participated in specialty coffee fairs around the world.

While some producers dried Robusta beans indirectly with fire, where smoke and high temperature could negatively affect flavor, Cooabriel is teaching farmers the advantages of using modern dryers and careful selection practices, Gonçalves said.

Experts from the state research agency Incaper and the federal university (Ifes) reported an increase in the number of Robusta producers seeking to certify large quantities of their beans as specialty coffee with higher added value.

“If in the past conilon was seen as an inferior quality coffee, this story has been changing”, said Douglas Gonzaga de Sousa, coordinator of the Espírito Santo Specialty Coffee Center.

The growing recognition of the high quality of Robusta in Brazil, along with the historically high productivity compared to Arabica, has attracted more Arabica producers to experiment with Robusta, applying their knowledge to the variety.

Espírito Santo’s Undersecretary of Rural Development, Michel Tesch, stated that this flow is largely one-way.

“We don’t have people leaving the conilon to produce arabica.”

Cooabriel is expanding its Robusta nursery in Espírito Santo to produce around 10 million seedlings per year, up from the current 2 million.

Prices soar

The increasing quality of Brazilian Robusta has translated into greater demand and higher prices, said Márcio Ferreira, president of the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé).

This year, the average price per bag of Brazilian differentiated Robusta exceeded US$295 per 60 kg bag until October, more than double the average price in 2021, according to Cecafé data shared with Reuters.

“Quality improvement allows you to increase the percentage of Robusta in blends around the world,” said Ferreira, adding that roasters are more openly highlighting Robusta’s qualities in their espresso blends as they reduce the share of Arabica.

At the same time, specialty Robusta coffee is not trying to compete directly with Arabica, said Jordan Hooper, head of green coffee trading at Sucafina.

“The original approach to specialty Robusta was to try to compete with specialty Arabica,” he said. “Now it’s like Robusta could be interesting in its own right.”

Natalia Ramos Braga, the barista who prepared the espresso made exclusively with Robusta at the Santo Grão coffee shop, in São Paulo, said that Brazil is fertile ground for the evolution of these tastes.

“People, especially here in Brazil, have a preference for a coffee with more weight in the mouth, more bitterness in the finish, this is a preference,” she said. “If someone likes more bitterness and more body, that’s great, we have a coffee for that, which is canephora coffee.”