São Paulo – Brazil exported over 330,000 60-kilogram coffee bags to Arab countries in quarter one (Q1) this year, up 16% from the same period last year, according to information released this Friday (5th) by the Brazilian Coffee Exporter Council (Cecafé).
Revenues, however, were down 3.65%, from US$ 57.5 million to US$ 55.4 million. The reason was that the average price of one bag was 26% lower in Q1 2013 than in Q1 2012.
Cecafé CEO Guilherme Braga noted, however, that although prices have been “declining steadily in the past 24 months,” “they are showing signs of bouncing back.”
Total exports of the product amounted to nearly 7.3 million bags from January to March, up 9.8% from January to March last year. Revenues stood at US$ 1.4 billion, down 18.8% from January to March.
The main target blocs in Q1 2013 were Europe, Asia, North and South America. In terms of countries, the leading markets were United States, Germany, Japan and Italy.
The Cecafé noted, however, that export volume from Brazil to emerging countries was up 25.3%, while export volume to traditional target markets was up 9.4%.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
