A closer look
What happens when a black frost wipes out 70% of your country's most valuable export? If you're the 1975 Brazilian government, you panic-buy whatever is left. The state systematically absorbed massive stockpiles of coffee beans to artificially inflate the decimated market and protect farmers. The real comedy came decades later during the "legacy auctions," where the government tried to quietly offload decades-old, state-owned stale coffee onto the global market without crashing the price. Mmm, vintage bureaucracy roast.
