Since its foundation till the fifties the production of very fine, high quality Arabica coffee was the mainstay of Pinhal's economy. After the early sixties coffee processing and marketing surpassed coffee growing as the main economic activity. At the same time coffee machinery manufacturing, started in the town as early as 1920, developed substantially to become the largest urban employer and tax payer.

Finally, the town established itself as a coffee research center with the expansion of the agricultural high school, the foundation and development of the Agronomy College, and the creation of a Coffee Research Station.

Pinhal has today more than 250 farms devoted primarily to coffee growing, an estimated coffee population in excess of 15 million trees and an average annual production of 200,000 bags (12,000 tons) of green coffee. Even though these numbers are today modest vis-à-vis the numbers found in new coffee growing areas of Brazil, what makes Pinhal's production very distinctive is the top quality of its high-grown coffee.

Located on the Mantiqueira Mountains, which offer ideal climate for coffee growing, Pinhal has always been known as a very special source of the mild Brazilian coffees much favored by quality conscious importers worldwide. Superior body and aroma, excellent preparation and consistent features explain the tradition of quality obtained by Pinhal coffees.

Coffee trading, which first developed to sell the increasing local crop, soon gained regional scale and ended up by making Pinhal better known nationally as a trading rather than production center. In the last decades large exporters and transnational trading groups have joined the traditional coffee millers, brokers and traders who were always a very active part of the economic life of the town.

The growth of the trading sector was explosive and the town today has 30 companies that trade and/or export green coffee. Presently there are 10 coffee mills and warehouses of medium to large size in Pinhal. The town has the capability to fully process 2 to 3 million bags (120 to 180 thousand tons) of green coffee per year.

Pinhal is very proud to be one of the largest coffee milling centers in the country and in the world. Pinhal's very active coffee milling industry was mostly equipped by Pinhalense S.A. Máquinas Agrícolas, a local maker of coffee machinery that not only dominates the Brazilian market for such equipment but also exports to more than 60 countries in all five continents. Pinhal has been a coffee machinery manufacturing center since the beginning of this century.

Engineers and technicians working for equipment makers located in Pinhal invented and or developed products such as the mechanical coffee washer, the round densimetric separator, the Porto coffee graders, not to mention numerous improvements in existing machines.

Pinhalense S.A. Máquinas Agrícolas is today one of the largest makers of coffee machinery in the world. It is one of the few makers worldwide that offers a complete line of machines from post-harvest to export or roasting. Pinhalense machines are today in operation in all coffee growing areas of Brazil and in most coffee producing countries. Nine out of every ten Brazilian coffee exporters use Pinhalense equipment.

Pinhalense's sales network comprises 120 representatives in Brazil and agents in more than 25 countries.