Sao Paulo, March 4 - Brazil should consume 18.1 million 60-kilogram bags of coffee in 2008, up from 17.1 million in 2007, the Agriculture Ministry said Tuesday.
Brazil is expected to harvest around 44 million bags in the current crop, according to government figures. Exports of green coffee were around 24.5 million bags over the last 12 months. Consumption and export figures like that have most traders arguing that Brazil is actually harvesting bigger crops than the government has been estimating over the past several seasons.
Brazil currently has just 607,243 bags of coffee in government stocks. The figure doesn't count coffee stored in private warehouses, however, which is much larger.
Brazil is the world's leading coffee producer and exporter.