Brazil's coffee bean exports have encountered port bottlenecks, but their performance is still strong.

Recently, CECAF É, director of Brazilian coffee exporters, published a report saying that despite the high delay rate of ships carrying coffee in ports, coffee exports increased by 49% in February compared with the same period last year, a figure that reflects the attractiveness of Brazilian coffee in the global market.

In February 2024, Brazilian coffee shipments totaled 3.626 million bags of 60 kg each, an increase of 48.9 per cent compared with 2.435 million bags in February last year. Therefore, in terms of foreign exchange earnings, it also increased by 47.2% over the same period last year. In the first two months of 2024, shipments of all kinds of coffee in Brazil increased by 44.9% to a total of 7.654 million bags, and the revenue from this export volume was US $1.574 billion, 39.3% higher than that in the first two months of 2023.

In January and February this year, Arabica exported the most coffee, with 6.076 million bags, accounting for 79.38 percent of the total, an increase of 35 percent over the two months of last year. In addition, the export volume of Robusta coffee was 1.031 million bags, an increase of 531.4% compared with the same period last year.

As a result, the president of CECAF É said that Robusta's exports hit an all-time high in February and broke the previous two-month record for shipments. This performance reflects the attractiveness of Brazilian coffee in the international market. Recently, the price of robusta coffee in Brazil is US $2876 / ton, while the price of coffee in Vietnam is US $3450 / tonne. Brazil's Robusta has an advantage over its competitors in price, and Brazil's Robusta has filled the gap in reduced production in Vietnam and Indonesia. In addition, the Red Sea crisis has affected the geopolitical conflict of shipping, but it has substantially interfered with Brazilian coffee exports, and no notification of the impact on coffee transport has been received so far that it has been positive in the past two months. But CECAF cargo will keep an eye on the incident, which has a big impact on the global situation, and it needs to be careful that freight prices have been rising, as well as ship congestion and delays at the port.

At present, the coffee ship delay rate in the Brazilian port of Santos in February is 75%, involving a total of 75 cargo ships, with the longest station change time of 22 days. The delay rate has improved from 85% in January this year. Earlier, cyclones and tropical storms in southern Brazil led ships from southern ports to other ports, and the short opening hours of the port gates led to congestion problems in the port of Santos. At present, the problem has slowed down and actions are being readjusted to solve the problem.

Although the United States is the main buyer of Brazilian coffee, China has become one of the main partners of Brazilian coffee. In the first two months of this year, China imported 256931 bags of coffee, an increase of 158.8% over the same period last year. As a result, CECAF É said that as long as the port problem is solved, Brazilian coffee beans can increase supply and slow market demand.