São Paulo – Brazilian coffee exports reached an all-time high last year, according to figures disclosed this Tuesday (10th) by the Brazilian Coffee Exporter Council (Cecafé). Export revenues reached US$ 8.7 billion, a 53.6% increase over 2010. A total of 33,455,683 60-kilogram bags were shipped, a 1.3% increase using the same basis of comparison, which indicates that the increase in revenues was caused much more by higher pricing than by increased sales volume.
“The result exceeds our early projection, which was US$ 8.4 billion, and has coffee account for a 3.4% share of Brazilian exports, and a 9.2% share of total agribusiness exports,” said Cecafé director general, Guilherme Braga, according to a statement issued by the organization.
Agribusiness exports reached US$ 94.6 billion in 2011, according to information provided by the Ministry of Agriculture this Tuesday. Overall, shipments of Brazilian products to foreign countries generated more than US$ 256 billion in revenues last year, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
Coffee of the Arabica variety accounted for 82% of the commodity’s exports, soluble coffee accounted for 9.9%, Robusta coffee answered to 8%, and roasted and ground coffee answered to 0.2%, according to the Cecafé. Volume-wise, Europe imported 52% of all Brazilian coffee in 2011 (a 3% decline), North America imported 52% (a 12% increase), Asia purchased 18% (a 5% increase), and South America bought 3% (a24% decline).
The Arab countries accounted for 4% of Brazilian coffee exports last year. A total of 1,246,199 bags were shipped to the region, a volume 2% lower than in 2010. Export revenues, however, stood at US$ 248.7 million, a 34% increase using the same basis of comparison.
The United States were the leading target country, followed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
To Braga, the industry’s performance in 2012 should be similar to that of 2011, in terms of volumes shipped, though revenues are expected to increase due to “a tendency of steadiness” in prices, which should see “a moderate increase.”
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
