Exports of green Brazilian coffee in July fell 37 percent from a year ago to 1.61 million 60-kg bags, hurt by the slow entry of newly harvested beans onto the market and low stocks of the commodity, export association Cecafe said on Thursday. Arabica trees in Brazil suffered severe damage in 2014 and 2015 from drought and high temperatures, while the smaller robusta crop suffered major losses earlier this year due to drought in the main producer state of Espirito Santo.
Despite the losses in output, Brazil exported record amounts of both beans in the two years prior to 2016, depleting producer and industry stocks. Exports of green coffee have reached 16.05 million bags so far this year through July, down 13.5 percent from the same period in the past two years. Arabica accounted for 1.57 million bags of exports last month, down 26 percent from the year before, while robusta amounted to 37,359 bags of exports in July, down 91 percent from a year ago, Cecafe said.
The US market accounted for 23 percent of total Brazilian coffee exports, with Germany at 18 percent, and Japan third at 7 percent. Nelson Carvalhaes, president of Cecafe, said, "The entrance of the new crop onto the market is slower than expected and stocks are low, which is dragging down exports."