Brazil Burned Millions of Bags of Coffee. Why?

In the 1930s, Brazil did something that sounds crazy: it bought millions of bags of coffee from its own farmers and burned them, dumped them in the sea and threw them into train engines. Too many trees, a crash in New York, a price falling off a cliff, a desperate plan, and the rivals who got rich while Brazil burned. CHAPTERS 0:00 A burning treasure 0:20 The coffee king 1:07 Too many trees 2:08 The plan 2:46 The burning 3:36 Did it work? 4:31 Your turn SOURCES Bacha & Greenhill, 150 Years of Coffee ICO historical data Delfim Netto, O problema do café no Brasil Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil CPDOC-FGV entries on the CNC and DNC