Aspectos Econômico-Financeiros da Produção de Café Convencional e Café Especial

Abstract

Coffee plays a very important stage in the economic, political, social and environmental scenario of the country, being directly responsible for a high percentage of investments in the agricultural sector. Brazil is the world's largest producer, with average production of 28 million bags annually over the past ten years. About 10% of world trade in coffee is made with special coffee. Special coffee is the one with some kind of differentiation, especially in the market and without commodity feature. It is estimated that Brazil exports from 300 thousand to 500 thousand bags a year of special coffee. Several authors have demonstrated the benefits to produce special coffee, and also showed the required investments to get this product. However, producers usually do not know precisely, if these investments offer the desired return for the financial aspect, because the production of conventional coffee offers lower final costs, lower investment, and also, it is known that only part of production coffee achieve classification as special coffee. So, this presentation try to investigate if the production of special coffee offers attractive financial returns to producers, to compare with the production of conventional coffee, since the production of conventional coffee is easier, with less capital, reaches its incomes due to the market price. It is known that the production of special coffee requires major investments, to follow the standards, investments in qualified people, in production processes, in management, etc. So, this work showed if with all these investments, the producer can achieve positive financial results at the moment to sell its production. So, it was analyzed four coffee producers, two conventional coffee producers and two special coffee producers, one large company and one small business from each group. It was studied their cash flows, and compared which the coffee production system that offers better advantages over the economic and financial aspect. Thus, the work can demonstrate, as well, if it is advantageous for small producers, to invest in the production of special coffee or keep the production of conventional coffee.