- Dow Jones Commodities Services -
Italian coffee company Lavazza should purchase around one million 60-kilogram bags of coffee this year despite the global economic downturn, according to an executive from the Italian company.Italian coffee company Lavazza should purchase around one million 60-kilogram bags of coffee this year despite the global economic downturn, according to an executive from the Italian company this week. The Italian company will continue to buy around one million bags in 2010 even if economic conditions pick up, said Giuseppe Lavazza, vice president of marketing at Lavazza, told Dow Jones Newswires. "We don't change the composition of our blends," he said on the sidelines of a coffee event in Sao Paulo. Brazil offers stable quality and a variety of different coffees from robusta (conillon) through to high-quality washed beans. One of Italy's leading coffee companies, Lavazza, is unlikely to shift buying to Brazil from premium Colombian and Central American coffees in the short term. Tight coffee supplies out of Colombia, the world's largest producer of mild washed arabica beans, has caused soaring premiums for their coffee beans. Weather and the smaller crop have made many coffee buyers nervous. Brazilian beans generally aren't suitable to replace the washed coffee beans, the executive said. Lavazza buys about 2.3 million 60-kilogram bags of green coffee a year and has the capacity to roast about 500 tons of coffee a day. Some 40% of Lavazza's purchases come from Brazil. He has also seen a reduction in coffees drunk in cafes and restaurants and a temporary shift to cheaper coffees. Lavazza said away-from-home coffees such as those drank in restaurants and bars have been hit by the recession, while retail coffees sold in supermarkets remain stable. Andrea Illy, general director of coffee company Illy, also intends to maintain existing coffee purchases in Brazil. Illy said that the company usually buys 250,000 bags annually from Brazil. "We expect to do so this year," he said on the sidelines of the conference. Lavazza estimated that Brazil's coffee crop will be between 40 million-42 million 60-kilogram bags, while Illy sees the crop at 42 million-44 million bags. Brazil's census bureau IBGE recently pegged the new 2009 coffee crop at 40.2 million 60-kilogram bags, slightly higher than the government coffee-crop estimate - by National Commodities Supply Corp. - of 39.1 million bags. The new coffee crop is smaller than the 45.9 million bags produced in 2008 due to cyclical growth patterns. "It will be a good size for a cyclically smaller crop," Lavazza said. Brazil is the world's No. 1 coffee producer.