By CECAFE

According to a survey by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé), domestic shipments of the product totaled 3.012 million 60 kg bags in June, generating US$ 423.2 million. With this performance, the country set a new record in the closing of coffee shipments in the 2020/21 harvest, which reached 45.599 million bags, up 13.3% over the 2019/20 season and 10.1% over the 2019/20 season. the 41.426 million bags of 2018/19, the best performance so far.

In foreign exchange revenue, exports of the national product abroad generated US$ 5.842 billion in the 2020/21 harvest, the best result in the last five years, which represented a growth of 13.4% compared to the US$ 5.154 billion in the 2019/ cycle 20.

The president of Cecafé, Nicolas Rueda, reveals that the new record reflects the 2020/21 harvest, exemplary in volume, quality and sustainability, and that it was possible to reach the highest historical level of national exports of the product due to the commercial and logistical efficiency of Brazilian exporters and the professionalism of the country's coffee growers.

“Producers maintain their constant cycle of investment in quality, sustainability and social and environmental responsibility, harvesting a record volume of arabica and conilon in the 2020 harvest. In this way, it allows national coffees to be accepted around the world, being driven by logistics professionals of our associates, who redoubled their efforts during the pandemic to honor their commitments in the face of logistical obstacles, boosted by the significant increase in freight costs, consequent and successive cancellations of bookings and difficulty in making new appointments”, explains Rueda.

CIVIL YEAR – In the first half of 2021, Brazil shipped a record 20.866 million bags of coffee abroad, obtaining inflows of US$ 2.794 billion – the highest value since 2016 –, a performance that implies an increase of 4.5% in volume and 7% in revenue compared to the result of the first six months of 2020. In this year's monthly average, the result corresponds to shipments of 3.5 million bags abroad, with revenue equivalent to US$ 466 million per month.

MAIN DESTINATIONS – Between July last year and the end of June this year, Brazil exported coffee to 115 countries and the United States remained its main trading partners. North Americans increased purchases of the product by 5.8% compared to the 2019/20 cycle, importing 8.337 million bags, which represented 18.3% of total exports.

Germany, with 17.4% representativeness, acquired 7.948 million bags (+16.2%) and occupied second place in the ranking. Exports of national coffees to Belgium grew 40%, totaling 3.833 million bags. Thus, the Belgians jumped to third place in the table and accounted for 8.4% of shipments. Closing the top 5 came Italy, with 2.762 mi/scs (6.1% of the total), and Japan, with 2.626 mi/scs (5.8%).

It is also worth mentioning the inclusion of two producing countries among the 10 main buyer markets for the national product in the 2020/21 harvest. Colombia occupied the eighth position in the table, increasing its imports by 150% – to 1.137 million bags – compared to the previous cycle and now representing 2.5% of total exports from Brazil. Mexico followed, occupying the ninth position with the acquisition of 965 thousand bags, or 2.1% of the total.
According to the president of Cecafé, these producing and exporting markets can be considered “new paradigms” for Brazilian coffees. “They import for domestic consumption and to industrialize and trade with other countries, as in the example of the Mexicans, who sell a lot to the US. Mexico has become an industrial power in soluble products and has increasingly demanded Brazilian grains for that”, he reveals.

In the 2020/21 season, exports of green coffee from Brazil to other producing countries totaled 2.697 million bags, which implied an increase of 47.2% compared to the 1.833 million bags shipped in the previous harvest. In addition to Colombia and Mexico, Ecuador (201,000 bags / +124.6%), Dominican Republic (139,000 bags / +217.6%) and Vietnam close the list of the top five producing nations that imported the most fresh Brazilian coffee. , the second largest global producer of the product (95 thousand bags / +27.2%).

TYPES OF COFFEE – With the shipment of 36.917 million bags in the recently ended season, the Arabica variety accounted for 81% of the total shipped abroad from July 2020 to the end of June this year and had the best performance ever. Another record was registered in exports of canephore coffee (robusta and conilon), which involved 4.715 million bags exported, representing 10.3%. Then came soluble, with 3.936 million bags (8.6%) and the roasted and ground product, with 30,704 bags (0.1%).

DIFFERENTIATED COFFEE – The export of coffee with superior quality or with certification of sustainable practices accounted for 17.3% of Brazilian shipments in the 2020/21 harvest. With the shipment of 7.889 million bags abroad, the differentiated fruits showed a growth of 16.4% compared to the 6.775 million bags registered in the previous cycle and generated revenues of around US$ 1.310 billion.

PORTS – The Santos (SP) maritime complex continued to be the main dispatcher for coffee in Brazil in the 2020/21 harvest, with 34.813 million bags departing from the São Paulo coast, corresponding to 76.3% of the total. As a result, came the ports of Rio de Janeiro, which accounted for 16.6% of the total shipping 7.565 million bags, and Vitória (ES), with the shipment of 1.550 million bags, accounting for 3.4%.

AN EYE ON THE FUTURE – Due to the recovery of the economy in important world powers, such as the USA and countries in Asia, especially China, global maritime transport faces intense challenges related to cargo transportation, which is undergoing a serious operational crisis. With the advance of vaccination in these nations, the demand was no longer repressed and there was an increase in the demand for food and electronic products, which generated congestion in North American and Asian ports.

This scenario led to successive cancellations of bookings, difficulty in scheduling new shipments and competition for containers and space on the ships. "These infrastructure and logistics bottlenecks are worrying and impact the performance of Brazilian coffee exports, as the North American and Asian ports operate at maximum capacity due to the imbalance in global trade", explains the president of Cecafé.

According to Rueda, adding the excellent harvest in volume and quality in 2020 with the lowest harvest in 2021, due to bienniality and weather irregularities, the supply of Brazilian coffee seems to be balanced with world demand. “Exporters continue to monitor this year's harvest and the development conditions for the 2022 cycle, as well as keeping an eye on the panorama of global consumption, which seems excited for the post-Covid-19 scenario, with the advance of vaccination, and for which the Brazilian product is essential. Thus, the good time for coffee in Brazil seems to last on the world stage”, he concludes.