SÃO PAULO – Brazilian coffee exports to Arab countries declined 19% in the first two months of this year over the same period of last year, according to data released this Monday (9th) by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council, or CeCafé.
Shipments added up to 233,300 60-kilo bags in the first two months of this year while in the same months of 2014 it was 287,000 bags.
But there was an increase in revenue from exports to Arabs. The shipments grossed US$ 35 million in the first two months of this year over US$ 33.5 million from January to February of 2014.
The Arab market’s share in Brazilian coffee exports, when it comes to volume, dropped from 5% to 4% in the comparison between the two time periods.
Data sent by CeCafé points out that the volume decline came from countries facing conflicts. There was a drop in sales to nations such as Syria and Libya, for instance.
For the Syrians, it was a 30% decline to 44,200 bags. In the Libyan market, the drop was of 93% to 640 bags. There was also a relevant sales drop to Lebanon.
When measuring exports in general by the country, the same dynamics occurred, with revenues going up more than volume.
In the period, there was a strong dollar appreciation against the real. Revenue increased 41.8% in January and February over the same months of 2014, while the volume only went up 0.4%. Revenue was of US$ 1.13 billion and shipments added up to 5.7 million bags.
Among the trade blocks, the main market for the Brazilian coffee industry was the European Union, which was responsible for 55% of purchases in January and February, generating foreign currency revenues of US$ 635 million, with 3.17 million bags sold.
Divided by country, the main destination for the commodity was the United States, followed by Germany, Italy, Belgium, Japan, United Kingdom, France, Russia, Turkey and Canada.
From the total exported by Brazil in the period, 462,200 bags were of industrialized coffees, with an 8.1% share. Revenues generated was of US$ 82.9 million. Green coffees reached 5.27 million bags, with 91.9% share and revenues of US$ 1.04 billion.
In February alone, coffee exports dropped 8.4% in volume to 2.6 million bags, but increased 27.3% in value to US$ 524 million.
