Brazil to store excess coffee. (World News).

BRAZIL -- Coffee growers will have $287.5 million to store up to eight million 60-kilo sacks of coffee, approved by the National Monetary Council (CMN). The resources are from the Fund for the Defense of the Coffee Economy (FunCafe) and will be for voluntary storage by the producers of Arabica

The price of coffee is the lowest in 10 years. This year Brazil will harvest 40 million sacks. The financing will have 9.5% annual interest, with an 18 month storage period extendabe for a similar period. Representatives of the Brazilian National Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CAN) had asked the minister for $450 million to store 10 million sacks Still, Joao Roberto Pulit, president of the FunCafe committee of the CAN, though the announcement positive because the minister assumed the obligation to seek more funds, if necessary.

In addition, $792 millions worth of research funding was announced coordinated by the Campinas Agroeconomic Institution (IAC), to identify the genetic map of coffee. The objective is to improve quality and productivity. According to the agricultural engineer Carlos Augusto Colombo, coordinator of the Coffee Genome project, the program is unprecedented. "Coffee has complex characteristics and we don't know exactly what guarantees its good quality."