São Paulo – January and February saw 281,600 60-kg bags of coffee shipped from Brazil to Arab countries, up 40% year-on-year, the Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé) reported this Wednesday (13). Revenues came out to USD 33.7 million, up 8%.
“It must be considered that we have greater supply, quality and uniqueness in our product, which aroused more and more interest in Arab countries over the last few years,” Cecafé told ANBA via email. It underscored the hike in imports by Syria (123.5%), as well as sales to Morocco, Oman, Libya, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the UAE.
Sales to Arab countries were in line with overall coffee exports from Brazil. The first two months of the year saw total foreign sales climb 31.5% year-on-year to 6.88 million bags, with revenue going up 8% to USD 911 million. The average price per bag, on the other hand, was down 18%.
According to Cecafé, exports in February 2019 were an all-time high for the month at 3.4 million bags, up 36.3% from February 2018. Revenue was USD 449 million, up 10.6%.
Last month, Arabica-type coffee accounted for 86.2% of exports, with soluble coffee making up 8.2% and Robusta making up 5.5%. Exports went up across the board.
“February coffee export volumes were the second straight record this year. Everything leads us to believe that in case these results are sustained, the year should end with 40 million bags shipped. That will be another all-time high,” a Cecafé press release quoted its president Nelson Carvalhaes as saying. “It must also be noted that these results show Brazil is regaining its share in global markets while catering to the most diverse, demanding markets,” he added.
In the first two months of the year, the leading importers of coffee from Brazil were Germany, the United States, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Turkey, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and Canada. The bulk of coffee exported from Brazil (81.5%) gets shipped out via the Port of Santos, in São Paulo.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
