New Varieties Improve Quality & Reduce Costs in Brazil

Arara, Catucaí and IAC 125 RN (IBC12) are newer generation cultivars that were selected for their superior cup score and resilience. These varieties seem to offer the best of both worlds, taking the good cup from Bourbon and the high yield, low input and strong disease resistance of its Robusta parents.

Arara is a cross between Yellow Catuai and Obatã (Hybrid of Timor) that was released in 2012. Its high yield, dwarf size and excellent Bourbon-like cup profile has made Arara a popular choice.

Catucaí is a naturally occurring cross between Icatu and Catuaí. Since the first selection of Catucaí in 1988, plant breeders have continued crossing Catucaí offspring and breeding them to select for preferred traits, releasing new varieties frequently. With both red and yellow Catuaí varieties, Catucaí’s cherry color comes from the Catuaí parent. Yellow Catucaí is cultivar of Yellow Catuaí and Icatu, and Red Catucaí is a cultivar of Red Catuaí and Icatu.

IBC12 is a cross between Villa Sarchí and Timor released in 2009. Like Catucai, IBC12 is the latest generation selected by breeding various offspring from the same cross. IBC12 was used as a synonym of the IAC 125 RN cultivar during the experimental phase of selection and is still used by some farmers to describe the cultivar. The name IAC 125 RN may be a mouthful, but it does tell us a lot about the variety. IAC is the abbreviation for the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, where the cultivar was selected. The RN indicates that the cultivar is registered in the National Register of Cultivars (RNC).

“We started seeing more Catucaí, IBC12 and Arara seedlings available in nurseries about 3 to 4 years ago. This year is the first year that we’re seeing several microlots composed of the varieties,” says Rafael Amaral, Specialty Supply Chain Coordinator for Sucafina. “It’s exciting to taste the results of years of hard work in the industry. These varieties open a lot of new doors for producers in Brazil.”

On the table, these varieties are living up to their reputations, Amaral reports. “We’ve tasted a few Arara lots, and they’ve shown the characteristics of the classic Brazilian Bourbon Pulped Natural profile that we love – sweet and chocolatey with honey and molasses,” he says. “And the Yellow Catucai had an appealingly creamy mouthfeel complemented by sweetness and dark chocolate.”

Newer Varieties Expand Opportunities

“I believe these varieties will be integral to coffee production in Brazil,” Amaral says. “We’ve already begun to see the climate in Brazil change due to global climate change, and that trend will likely continue. These varieties are able to better withstand drought and many diseases. With the same cupping profiles and scores of a Bourbon, it’s difficult to imagine these won’t be widely cultivated.”

Raphael isn’t alone in his optimism. Many coffee professionals in Brazil have high hopes that these varieties will present a major opportunity for producers across the country. We have already begun hearing about how they can improve coffee production for many farmers.

On the whole, one of the biggest advantages of these new varieties is their dual higher yield, higher cup quality performance. One field test performed by Fundaçao Procafe with a sample size of 19 farms reported that Arara yielded an average of 35% more cherry than Catuaí (an average of 54 bags per hectare compared to 40 bags per hectare.) Farmers also reported that the variety produced larger, flatter beans, meaning that more of their harvest could be sold as larger and higher-priced screen sizes.

In addition to capturing the premiums for specialty coffee, the high productivity and higher disease resistance of these varieties helps farmers save on pesticide & fungicide costs. For some farmers, these traits could make the transition to organic production easier. 

On top of producing a higher quality cup than the typical Robusta-Arabica crosses, these new varieties can make it easier for a farmer to produce a higher quality cup with all the varieties they grow. The trick? Time.

Rafael Andrade is an agronomist and consultant who works with smallholder farmers in Andradas, a microregion in Sul de Minas. Andrade is encouraging small producers to plant Arara because he believes it will help small producers boost production while maintaining quality.

Andrade notes that Arara is a late maturation variety. This trait is beneficial for processing, because staggered harvest times spread out the total volume across a longer period. These steadier, smaller volumes can give producers a chance to focus on more labor-intensive processing methods and devote more care to each lot. He recommends that farmers maintain a balance between early-, mid- and late-maturation varieties to enable them to best distribute processing volume and give every lot the attention it deserves.

Deyvid Leandro is in charge of quality control and sales for Dbarbosa Farm in Cerrado Mineiro. He reports that Arara’s late maturation has also proved a boon for competing and selling coffees. By the time they compete with their coffee, Deyvid explains, most coffees have been stored post-harvest for over 3 months. With Arara, Deyvid can enter freshly harvested lots, giving him an edge over other competitors.

Improving Education & Supporting Adoption

Of course, nothing is perfect and there are a few downsides to these new varieties. Luckily, the downsides remain relatively small and solvable. For example, one challenge presented by Arara is that physical signs of cherry maturation are different from other varieties, which leads many farmers to pick cherry before peak ripeness. This problem can be addressed through training for farmers and day laborers picking cherry.

Another thing to keep in mind, Andrade advises, is that while these newer varieties offer larger production volumes, they often have a shorter lifespan and will require more frequent pruning and renovation. “It’s very good to have Arara, but it can’t be your entire production,” he says. He recommends that producers plant Arara and similar varieties on a maximum of 20 to 30% of their producing area.

These varieties are becoming available to more and more farmers across Brazil. On top of their physical proximity, the cost of seedlings is, overall, the same as other seedlings available in the nurseries, making them easily accessible for all farmers.

As more farmers adopt Arara, Catucaí, and IBC12, we’re excited to continue building relationships with producers experimenting with them. We continue to expand our specialty sourcing in Brazil, so keep an eye out for more microlots that include these varieties.