Coffee: Brazil increases export revenues, but sales volume drops

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil exported 40.4 million 60 kg bags of coffee in 2021, earning US$6.2 billion. The performance represents a 9.7% drop in volume but a 10.3% evolution in foreign exchange revenue compared to the figures recorded in the 12 months of 2020. The data are part of the statistics report from the Council of Brazilian Coffee Exporters (Cecafé).

This performance implies the third largest volume shipped abroad by the country in history, even in the middle of the transition to a low cycle crop, and, in values, the best in the last seven years, reflecting the high prices in the market and the favorable exchange rate for exports.

“Ahead of the entry into the 2021/22 season, with a smaller harvest due to the biennial cycle and the impacts of weather on coffee trees in Brazil, we experienced intense volatility in the market. Prices have risen close to their historical levels, with the average export price of US$154.63 being one of the highest in the series. These factors, combined with a strong dollar against the real, favored the greater inflow of foreign currency into Brazil”, analyzes Nicolas Rueda, Cecafé’s president.

According to him, last year’s performance is significant and results from the professionalism of Brazilian exporters, who performed exemplary work to deal with the substantial increase in freight costs, cargo rollovers, constant cancellations of bookings, and competition for containers and space in ships.

“We lived a full year with the impact of Covid-19, and the capacity of our members was what allowed Brazil to achieve the third-best performance in shipped volume in history. The national exporters were resilient and made titanic efforts, not letting themselves be beaten. Thus, after more than two decades, and as an alternative, they resumed shipments in the ‘break bulk’ mode, with modern technology, via ‘big bags’, which partially compensated for the lack of containers”, he praises.

LOGISTICS FOR COFFEE SHIPMENTS

Despite the relevant performance reached by exporters, Cecafé points out that the logistic bottlenecks in the world maritime commerce impacted the final result of Brazilian coffee exports last year.

“We observed an improvement in the flow of shipments in December, also motivated by ‘break bulk’ shipments. Even so, we project that Brazil stopped exporting about 3 million bags and received approximately US$465 million in revenues”, Rueda estimates.

Another point that shows the impact of these obstacles is reducing the number of containers sent abroad with coffee. Last year, 112,732 containers were shipped, a 9.8% drop compared to the 125,034 sent in 2020.

MAIN DESTINATIONS

In 2021, Brazil exported coffee to 122 countries. The United States led the ranking, importing 7.8 million bags, a volume 4.4% lower than in January-December 2020, representing 19.3% of total Brazilian shipments last year.

With a share of 16.2%, Germany purchased 6.5 million bags (-14.4%) and is second on the list. Italy comes next with 2.9 million bags (-2.5%), Belgium with 2.8 million (-24.6%), and Japan with 2.5 million bags (+4.2%).

It is also worth mentioning Colombia, the third-largest coffee producer globally, which was the seventh main destination of Brazilian exports of the product. The neighboring country bought 1.2 million bags, the most considerable growth in volume in the interval, 289,561 bags, equivalent to a percentage increase of 33.4 points.

Still, in terms of volume, China was the second-largest buyer of Brazilian coffee in 2021, behind Colombia, increasing its imports by 132,003 bags (+65%) compared to 2020. In the 12 months of last year, the Chinese purchased 333,648 bags of the Brazilian product.

TYPES OF COFFEE

Arabica coffee was the most exported type in 2021, with 32.7 million bags shipped abroad, corresponding to 80.9% of the total. The soluble segment shipped 4 million bags, accounting for 10%. Next comes the canephora variety (robusta + conilon), with 3.6 million bags (9%), and the roasted and ground coffee, with 45,766 bags (0.1%).

CROP YEAR

Brazil recorded its best exchange revenue in the last five years in the first six months of the 2021/22 coffee season. The country earned US$3.4 billion from 19.4 million bags shipped from July to December, a 12.8% increase compared to the same period last year, despite the 21.4% decrease in volume.