A recent and surprising study found that Brazil produces about 19 new millionaires each day, and has since 2007. Although, looking at the country more closely, the stat shouldn’t be too shocking; Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world (by size and population) and in the past few years its booming economy has moved nearly 30 million people into the middle class.


Zepol’s TradeView data shows that Brazil’s growth is potentially due to its increased exports in natural resources like mineral oils (HTS code 27), and coffee and tea (HTS code 09), which are both multi-billion-dollar-a-year industries for the country.

Over the past five years, Brazil’s mineral fuel exports to the United States have almost doubled. As of November 2011, the growth has continued with a 15.8% increase compared to 2010.

In terms of coffee and tea, Brazil is the leading exporting country to the United States. Coffee and tea exports are more than two times what they were in 2007 and are consistently rising. As of November 2011, exports are up 56% from 2010 and 123% from 2009.

Brazil’s economy is certainly not recession-proof with many of its imports and exports showing drops in 2009, but the overall impact has not hindered the country’s development. Another economic boost worth mentioning is Brazil’s city of Rio de Janeiro, which is hosting the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. Overall, the South American super power of Brazil is on the rise and doesn’t appear to be slowing down soon.   

Freakonomics recently posted an article titled “Fair Trade and the Food Movement” that questioned the practicality of Fair Trade coffee. Specifically, the article noted that Fair Trade importers dump excess Fair Trade coffee on the conventional market when demand lags.

Curious as usual, we here at Zepol wanted to know more. So, we did a quick search for the United States’ importing trend for “Fair Trade Coffee” over the last seven years. South and Central American countries make up the bulk of the United States’ Fair Trade coffee imports. Below is a trend of the yearly trade from the top South and Central American exporting countries to the United States since 2003.

As you can see, Fair Trade coffee exports from the top five Central and South American countries to the U.S. have been steadily increasing as a whole since 2003. We might expect to see regular coffee exports from these same countries decreasing over this time frame since Fair Trade exports experienced so much growth. However, this is not the case.

A look at non-Fair Trade coffee exports from these countries fails to show that regular coffee exports decrease as Fair Trade coffee exports rise. Instead, the data shows relatively stable demand for coffee from 2003 - 2010. Could it be that the regular coffee market is merely sustaining its current demand while all coffee export growth occurs in the Fair Trade sector? What do you think?