São Paulo – Brazilian coffee exports to the Arab countries declined 18% in volume and 20.4% in revenues from January to November of this year in comparison to the same period of 2015, according to data made available this Wednesday (7) by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé).
The data shows that shipments to the region totaled 1.1 million 60-kg bags in the first eleven months of 2016, with revenues reaching USD 160.7 million.
Despite the decline, the Arab market’s share as destination for the Brazilian coffee abroad hasn’t changed much, since there was a drop in the sector’s foreign sales overall.
From January to November of this year, Arabs bought, in volume, 3.4% of all coffee exported by the sector, and accounted for 3.34% in revenues. In the same months of last year, they purchased 4% of the total in volume and accounted for 3.5% of revenues.
This year, almost all of the Arab countries – 19 – have bought coffee from Brazil: Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Tunisia, UAE, Egypt, Algeria, Djibouti, Libya, Sudan, Kuwait, Qatar, Morocco, Oman, Bahrain, Iraq, Comoros Islands and Yemen.
The largest buyers were the Lebanese with USD 48.5 million, slightly over a third of the total exported by Brazil to the Arab market. In second came Syria with USD 27.6 million, with Saudi Arabia placing third with USD 18.7 million.
Overall, Brazilian coffee exports dropped 9% in volume in the first nine months of the year with 30.7 million bags, and 15% in revenues, with USD 4.8 billion. The average trade price of the 60-kg bag declined 6.8% to USD 156.29.
In November, Cecafé reported that Brazil exported 3 million bags, a 12.2% decline over the same month in 2015. But foreign currency revenues totaled USD 547.3 million, up 5.6% over the same month of last year. Cecafé highlights the increase in prices of the conilon and Arabica coffees.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
