Harvest: May–September
Altitude: 700–1,300 metres (2,300–4,260 feet) above sea level
Rainfall: 1,440–1,810 millimetres (57–71 inches)
Temperature: 22–26°C (72–79°F)
The state of Goiás. The rectangular enclave in the eastern portion of the state, the Distrito Federal (Federal District), contains the national capital Brasília.
The state of Goiás is situated in the centre of Brazil, northwest of Minas Gerais and west of Bahia. Goiás lies at the heart of the Cerrado, the huge highland savannah that covers much of central Brazil. Goiás was chosen to be the site of Brazil’s new capital city, Brasília, in the 1950s, and since then the population of the state has grown rapidly, more than tripling between 1950 and 1980.
Coffee farming began to spread into Goiás from neighbouring Bahia and Minas Gerais during this period (Caldarelli et al 2019). As with the Cerrado Mineiro region of Minas Gerais, industrialised agriculture expanded in Goiás with the development of liming and large-scale irrigation and fertilisation in the latter half of the twentieth century. These technologies helped the eastern region of Goiás become the most productive coffee-growing region in all Brazil, yielding 55 bags per hectare, compared with the national average of 18 bags per hectare (Cecafé 2007).
Some farms in the southeast of Goiás are part of the Cerrado Mineiro Denominação de Origem (DO), but a farmers’ association in Goiás has also begun working towards a separate Indicação de Procedência (IP) for coffee grown in the state (CCCMG 2017). The largest coffee-growing areas of the state are in the southeast, and they are characterised by large plantations making extensive use of irrigation, fertilisers, and mechanisation.
In the northeast of the state, a region called Alto Paraíso has high elevations suitable for coffee-growing, but industrialised farming there is restricted because the region lies within an environmental protection area. This creates the possibility for small-scale, specialty-focused farms to develop in the region (Campos and Valente 2009).