São Paulo – Brazilian coffee producers exported more to the Arab countries this year. In the accumulated result in 2011, up to November, sales to the region reached 1.14 million 60-kilogram bags, while in the same period last year they had totalled 1.13 million bags. The growth in volume was small, 1%, but revenues rose from US$ 162.6 million to US$ 226.3 million, growth of 39%.
The figures were disclosed on Wednesday (7) by the Brazilian Coffee Exporter Council (Cecafé). According to the organisation, on the whole, coffee exports grew 59% in revenues from January to November this year as against the same months in 2010, to US$ 7.8 billion. In terms of volume, sales rose from 29.6 million bags to 30.4 million bags. According to the Cecafé, the greater growth in revenues than in volume is due to price variations, as they maintained high levels throughout 2010.
The Arab world answered to 4% of the volume exported and to 3% of revenues obtained with sales abroad. The greatest market for Brazilian coffee abroad was Europe, which received 15 million bags of coffee from Brazil this year, resulting in revenues of US$ 4 billion. North America is the second main market, with 7.6 million bags received and generation of US$ 1.9 billion for Brazilians. To Europe, sales remained stable in the period and to North America, they rose 13%.
Much of the coffee exported by Brazil is green. Of the 30.4 million bags of the commodity that the country sold abroad up to November, 27.5 million were green coffee, mainly Arabica. Soluble coffee answered to 2.9 million bags. Most of the shipments went through Santos, on the coast of São Paulo, followed by Vitória, in Espírito Santo, and then Rio de Janeiro.
In November alone, exports of coffee had revenues of US$ 834.9 million and grew 34.6% over the same month in 2010. In terms of volume, the total was 2.9 million bags, with reduction of 5.7%. The reduction, according to the Cecafé, was due to the current crop being lower than the previous one.
*Translated by Mark Ament
