Carioca beans, the favorite of Brazilians, are more expensive and scarce

The supply of carioca beans, the preferred type of Brazilian consumers, is lower in 2022, and prices are higher. With this, the producing sector already sees a migration of consumption to other variations, mainly for black beans.

The price relationship between the two most consumed types has already changed. Traditionally, black beans cost about 85% of carioca beans. Now, it is varying between 60% and 70%, says Marcelo Lüder, president of Ibrafe (Brazilian Institute of Beans and Pulses).

For him, the Brazilian will have to “let go” of the preference —the producing sector calculates that the carioca occupies 60% of the consumption in the country. While this type is costing over R$10, the black can still be found at retail for R$6 or R$7 in a 1-kilogram package.

The moment of high prices takes the consumer already pressed by the general increase in prices – the accumulated inflation until April, of 12.13%, is the highest since October 2003.

The preview of the official inflation for May, the IPCA-15 calculated by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), shows that carioca beans have already risen 14.58% from January to May this year alone. In 12 months, the legume accumulates a high of 21.5%.

For Lüder, there will not be a shortage of carioca beans for the consumer, but the product will be more expensive, which will necessarily increase the consumption of other types.

The consumer who does not give up the carioca type should notice a relief in prices in August and September. The supply window will come from the outflow of the third and last crop of the year.

The break, however, shouldn’t last long. The third crop of the 2021/2022 cycle arrives with the smallest planted area in the last ten years and accounting mainly for grain grown under irrigation. In this more controlled planting model, productivity and grain quality also increase, but costs have risen, driven mainly by the cost of electricity.

After the third harvest window, prices should continue towards new peaks starting in October.

The mismatch between supply and demand made wholesale prices hit records in the middle of the harvest – the producer association estimates that about 80% of the second batch is harvested.

Last week, a 60-kilogram bag of carioca beans hit R$490 in Mato Grosso. In the same period, black beans cost R$ 225 in Paraná, the main producing state. A year ago, the first was sold for less than R$300.

The reduction in the supply of carioca beans comes from the combination of losses – intense frosts in the southern region and drought in Goiás and Minas Gerais – with a smaller planted area. This cut in production volume stems both from the replacement by other grains with a guaranteed market, such as corn and soybeans, and from the particularity of the carioca bean market: it is only consumed in Brazil.

For those who produce, calibrating production to demand is always a risk factor. If the planted area grows too much and the domestic market does not absorb it, there is no one to sell to. Now, when there would be room to sell more product internally, there is also no one to buy from.

With other types, such as black, fradinho and red, says Lüder, the producer is more confident of having a consumer market outside the country, if there is a mismatch between the two poles – how much is produced and how much is consumed.

Black beans, for example, even if there is a reduction in production, can be imported from Argentina. Between January and April 2022, 20 thousand tons of grain were purchased from the neighboring country. Last year, in the same period, there were 6,000 tons. From January to December 2021, black bean imports totaled 60 thousand tons.

For the director of Ibrafe, the moment indicates advantages to the planting of carioca beans for the first crop of 2023, which begins to be harvested from the end of December. “This situation opens an important option for the producer, which is the possibility of planting with good remuneration in the first harvest of next year”, he says.

Lüder says he considers that the world moment brings important issues to be discussed in the market for beans and pulses (as they are called lentils, chickpeas and peas), due to the use of these legumes as substitutes for animal proteins.

The exchange has been made, according to him, both because of the high price of meat and the increase in the number of vegetarians.

“Beans have been the basis of ‘plant based’ because they also demand less natural resources to be produced. There are many situations that point to the possibility of us producing more.”