The demand for coffee is likely to take time to recover from the impact of the pandemic, even as cafes and restaurants are open again in large cities such as São Paulo. “The expectation for the coming months is to maintain the levels of consumption at home, but outside the home the recovery will be slow,” says the head of the Brazilian Association of Coffee Industry (Abic), Ricardo Silveira. According to him, in recent months the increase in home consumption has not fully compensated for the drop in sales in cafes and restaurants. But companies are betting on higher-end products for consumption at home. Nestlé, for example, is investing R$151 million in the Nescafé, Dolce Gusto and Starbucks brands in 2020, focusing mainly on premium products. Suplicy, for its part, seeks ways to survive the crisis after a 90% drop in sales in the first quarter due to social distancing measures. The company’s roasting facility saw production fall to 12 tonnes of beans per month. “Our expectation was to grow 40% this year, but I think we will shrink 30%,” CEO Felipe Braga says.
Source: Valor International