São Paulo – Coffee export revenues were up 6.1% in March to USD 423.72 million in Brazil, while shipped volume edged up 0.2% to 3.1 million bags. The average price per bag was USD 135.72, up 6%. The numbers were made public by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé) this Thursday afternoon (9).
“Export results were really good in March, since shipped volume was on par with March 2019 despite the limitations posed by the crisis and the smaller crop in 2019-2020. The exporting industry worked hard on preparing the coffee as well as on logistics, offices and ports, complying with every recommendation from the WHO [World Health Organization] and from federal, state and local government entities, in order to achieve the best result possible,” a press release quoted Cecafé chairman Nelson Carvalhaes as saying.
Q1 saw 9.6 million bags of coffee shipped to 106 countries, down 5.7% from Q1 2019. Revenue was down 2.6% to USD 1.3 billion. average price was up 3.3% to USD 135.48. Robusta-type coffee exports were outstanding, with a 24.9% increase to 691,200 bags shipped.
United States, Germany and Italy were the leading destinations for coffee from Brazil during Q1. As for continents and blocks, exports to Africa soared 44.5% to 205,000 bags shipped.
Shipped volume to Arab countries were down 15.7% year-on-year in Q1 to 363,620 bags, grossing USD 41.4 million.
Carvalhaes said the Brazilian coffee industry is faced with one of its biggest hardships in 300 years, having gone through world wars, the New York Stock Exchange crash and the Cold War in the past century alone. “Amid this scenario, the industry reiterates its solidity and maturity, with a cohesive production chain that is able to keep supplying domestic and external clients with sustainable, quality coffee,” he said.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
