São Paulo – Brazilian coffee exports declined in revenues and volume in May in comparison to the same month of last year, according to data released this Friday (10) by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé). Arab countries such as Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Libya and Djibouti were listed among the fifty largest importers of the Brazilian product last month.
Brazil exported 2.4 million 60-kilos bags of coffee in May, which generated USD 352 million in revenues. There was a decline of 17.4% in volume over the same month in 2015 and of 27.3% in revenues. The sharper decline in revenues was due to lower average prices, since in May of last year the Brazilian coffee was sold abroad for the price of USD 166.02 per bag and last month the price was set in USD 145.97 per bag. The price declined 12.1%.
Among the Arab countries, the biggest buyer of Brazilian coffee was Lebanon with USD 3.9 million, accounting for 1.1% of all Brazilian exports. The Lebanese market is listed at the 18th position among the main destinations for the product, but well below of the countries in the top positions. Germany imported USD 75.9 million, the United States spent USD 60.6 million, and Japan bought USD 30.3 million.
Still regarding Arab nations, imports reached USD 1.3 million for Saudi Arabia, USD 1.2 million for Syria, USD 1 million for Jordan, USD 817,000 for the UAE, USD 568,000 for Libya and USD 380,000 for Djibouti. Other Arab countries also purchased coffee from Brazil last month, but the sums were even smaller: Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, Tunisia and Iraq. Lebanon, the biggest Arab buyer of Brazilian coffee, imported primarily the Arabica variety.
Year-to-date through May, Brazilian coffee exports also went down: 13.6 million bags were shipped, grossing USD 2 billion. Volume shipped was down 9.2% and revenues slid 26.5%. The average price per coffee bag fell from USD 181.44 through May 2015 to USD 146.92 through May of this year.
Arab countries imported a combined 510,000 coffee bags from Brazil through May, spending USD 67.1 million in the process. The region accounted for 4% of total exports, but volume shipped dropped 13% and revenues were down 23.4%.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani & Gabriel Pomerancblum
