Brazilian exporters shipped 1.46 million 60-kg bags of green coffee in May, 37 percent less than in the same month last year, as a nationwide truckers strike reduced transportation of the product to ports, exporters association Cecafa said on Tuesday. Cecafa said local coffee exporters delayed between 400,000 and 500,000 bags of exports in May due to the strike. It said a lower availability of coffee also impacted volumes, as Brazil is in the peak of its between-harvests period.
The small volume shipped in May takes the total for the year to 10.6 million bags, almost 8 percent less than in the same period in 2017 and the smallest volume for the first five months of the year since at least 2013. One positive aspect of the report, the association said, was the surge in shipments of robusta, a type of coffee widely used by the soluble coffee industry.
Robusta exports in May reached 46,488 bags, 134 percent more than last year, as local production shows signs of recovery after a two-year drought in the main producing state of Esparito Santo that sharply reduced exporting volumes.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.