Whilst on holiday in São Paulo, Brazil, I noticed that the soil colour was completely different to the soil colour in the UK and in order to understand why, I visited the ‘Museu Catavento Cultural e Educacional’. I discovered that the soil has a high-iron content because it originates from what was possibly one of the largest volcanic spills in the Earth’s history and as the spill contained magnetite, the soil in southern Brazil is incredibly fertile where it’s called Terra Roxa. This type of highly fertile soil has played a huge role in the development of Brazil’s coffee production, so much so that Brazil is now the world leader in coffee exportation, where its best month since 1970 (October 2011) generated $826.05 million through its exportation.
