São Paulo – The first half of the year saw 563,955 60-kg bags of coffee exported to Arab countries from Brazil, up 1% H1 2017, the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council said this Thursday (12). Export revenues, on the other hand, slid 11.6% to USD 85.9 million.
This was mainly because the average price per bag in H1 2018 was 10.5% lower than in H1 2017, according to Cecafé.
Overall, nearly 14.5 million bags were shipped abroad from Brazil in H1 this year, down 4.2% from H1 2017. Total export revenue was down 14.2% to USD 2.2 billion.
Year-on-year in June, foreign sales slid 12.7% to just under 2.5 million bags. Revenue reached USD 363 million, down 1%.
The July 2017-June 2018 crop year saw 30.3 million bags exported, down 8.4% from the preceding season, and revenue was down 14.3% to USD4.9 billion.
A statement quoted Cecafé president Nelson Carvalhaes as saying total amount exported was in line with industry forecasts, which ranged from 30 to 31 million bags, but he noted that results could have been around 5% better “weren’t it for a sharp drop in supply of Conilon (Robusta) coffee, due to weather issues which affected the 2014/15 and 16 crops.”
“The weaker output made producers apprehensive, and this pushed prices up to levels higher than international market prices, thus hampering foreign sales,” Carvalhaes said. During the crop year, Arabica coffee accounted for 86.4% of exports from Brazil, with soluble coffee at 11.4% and Robusta with a meager 2.2%.
The executive remarked, however, that a record 58 million bags are expected next season, and he believes this will mean the industry will “end the year with good performance.” “we will recover the space we lost abroad,” he argued.
The leading buyers of coffee from Brazil during the crop year were the United States, followed by Germany, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Canada and France. The United Kingdom was a highlight with a 25.44% hike in imports of Brazilian coffee from the 2016/2017 season, according to Cecafé.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
