They promised a lot of things there. They promised a very high salary based on production, and first they put us to harvest bad coffee, so we couldn’t earn any money, because there wasn’t much coffee and we worked ourselves to death and got nothing. We already knew we would have to buy our own food, but we didn’t know we would have to buy blowers, machines, gloves, boots and goggles, because they don’t provide them. We had to buy those things ourselves.

Coffee worker during the 2025 Minas Gerais harvest

Shutterstock (licensed)

“I would never go back”: forced labour risks in Brazil’s coffee supply chains

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Brazil is the largest global producer and exporter of coffee, supplying one third of the world’s output to over 120 countries with 70% of exports going to the ten largest buyers, including the USA, Germany, Italy and Japan. Approximately half of Brazilian coffee originates from Minas Gerais state, including 65% of Brazil’s total Arabica output.

To understand how shortcomings in corporate efforts to address forced labour, highlighted in the 2026 KnowTheChain food and beverage benchmark, affect workers at the bottom of global supply chains, KnowTheChain partnered with Articulation of Rural Employees of the State of Minas Gerais (ADERE-MG) to investigate working conditions on Brazilian coffee plantations.

There are some co-operatives that have a list of the names – those people that have already gone to justice and have denounced their employers – and they go through this list. And those workers that have actually complained and demanded their human rights, they are no longer employed. For those who live in the farm, the housing is really poor: like the houses are painted, but inside there are gutters.

Investigator from ADERE-MG

ADERE-MG

ADERE-MG

ADERE-MG

ADERE-MG