Drought-hit coffee farmers in Brazil hard last year, drying up trees and driving global prices to record highs. But Rodrigo Brondani is expecting a bumper harvest. Brondani's giant plantation on the savanna of Brazil's northeastern state of Bahia looks very different to the mountainside farms and estates typical in coffee cultivation across much of Latin America.
As he inspects rows of plants laden with green coffee cherries, a long irrigation arm passes overhead nearby. It traces a wide circle above the trees from a central pivot, like the hand of a clock.
"This is looking very good," said Brondani, the lead manager at the Joha farm, which has 900 hectares (2,224 acres) of irrigated coffee fields — more than 20 times bigger than the average coffee farm in Brazil. This kind of industrial-scale farm with access to irrigation is becoming increasingly important in meeting global coffee demand in Brazil — the world's largest grower.
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