A fourth-generation coffee grower in Brazil is intensifying sales efforts for the rare eugenioides coffee, cultivated exclusively on his plantation. This unique variety, an ancestor of the widely known arabica bean, is expected to command prices up to 50 times higher than typical arabica beans used in gourmet coffees.
Luiz Paulo Dias Pereira Filho anticipates his harvest of eugenioides will fetch around 1 million reais (approximately $190,476) for 10 standardized bags, each weighing 60 kilograms. In contrast, arabica coffee prices have declined this year to nearly $400 per bag.
Describing the rare species, Pereira Filho noted its exceptional sweetness and minimal bitterness, attributing this to its very low caffeine content, which is almost equivalent to decaffeinated coffee. His clientele includes buyers from Taiwan and Saudi Arabia, among other countries. Last year, he sold three bags of eugenioides at 90,000 reais ($17,148) each.
This surge in sales reflects a growing interest in niche specialty coffees, even as the broader coffee market has retreated from last year’s record peaks. Kim Ionescu, chief strategy development officer at the Specialty Coffee Association, compared the current enthusiasm for eugenioides to the early 2000s surge in demand for the geisha arabica variety, emphasizing the rarity and distinctive flavor that elevate it to a luxury product.
However, cultivating eugenioides is challenging due to its sensitivity to climate and other environmental factors, resulting in low yields. Pereira Filho expects each of his five hectares planted with this species to produce only two bags, which is less than a tenth of the typical arabica output.
He explained that the plant requires meticulous care since it has not undergone genetic improvements. Pereira Filho is aware of only a few other farms worldwide attempting commercial cultivation of eugenioides. The global production scale of this species remains unclear.
With over 20 years of experience in specialty coffee production, Pereira Filho operates in Brazil, the leading global producer of arabica coffee. (Exchange rate: $1 = 5.25 Brazilian reais)
