Brazil exported 2.48 million 60-kg bags of green coffee in October, the lowest amount for that month since at least 2013, exporters association Cecaf? said on Thursday. October shipments were 17.7 percent smaller than the amount reported a year earlier, leading Cecaf? to admit that total exports for the year would probably lag previous years. Earlier in the year the association was expecting volumes to remain stable.
Cecaf? head Nelson Carvalhaes said adverse weather conditions for Brazilian coffee fields this year caused production to fall, one of the factors behind falling exports. Brazilian coffee producers have also been slow to sell, waiting for possible better prices. Almost all the volume exported in October was arabica, as the country remains basically absent from robusta export markets after two consecutive years of drought in 2015 and 2016 slashed production and depleted local of the variety widely used to produce instant coffee.
Shipments of robusta were only 17,000 bags for October, while arabica exports were 2.47 million bags. For the year through October, total green coffee exports reached 21.92 million bags, 10.5 percent below volumes seen in similar period a year earlier. The reduced volumes have had an impact on the availability of Brazilian coffee abroad. Some exporters were also worried about a reduction in shipping space as some companies were cutting container availability between South America and Europe.