São Paulo – April saw 3,3 million bags of green, soluble, and roast and ground coffee shipped from Brazil, up 2.5% from a year ago. Export revenues came out to USD 442.1 million, up 9% year-on-year. Average price per bag was USD 132.02, up 6.4%, the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé) reported this Tuesday (12).
Year-to-date through April saw 13.3 million bags of coffee shipped abroad from Brazil, with Robusta exports going by up 27.2%, or 1 million bags. Total year-to-date export revenue was USD 1.8 billion, averaging USD 134.82 per bag, up 4.2%.
Exports to Arab countries amounted to 475,000 60-kg bags, fetching USD 54.8 million, down 17.9% in volume and 20.5% in revenue year-to-date through April.
The biggest destination for Brazilian coffee remained the United States, at 2.7 million bags shipped through April, while 2.4 million bags shipped to Germany, and 1.2 million to Italy. Next on the list were Belgium, Japan, Russia, Turkey, Spain, Canada and France.
Export highlights in terms of continents and blocs included a 40.2% hike to 268,600 bags shipped to Africa.
Despite the pandemic, there was a hike in exports to Europe and the United States, Brazil’s biggest markets at a combined 77.5% of total foreign sales. Sales to five other destinations also went up: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Macau, Mauritius, Rwanda and Uganda.
“Coffee export numbers for April 2020 were a good surprise, with sales exceeding expectations for this time of year. For the first time ever, virtually no product was left in the in the off-season. This was an unprecedented turn of the crop-year, with almost no product left. (…) This once again attests to the efficiency of Brazil’s agribusiness chain, and particularly so for coffee. Brazil has become highly competitive, and operational investments are done sustainably. The entire chain remains committed and working hard to get coffee to buyers safely, in strict observance of care and prevention measures from the WHO, the Ministry of Health, and state and local health entities,” a press release quoted Cecafé chairman Nelson Carvalhaes as saying.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
