Brazil exported 1.98 million 60-kg bags of green coffee in April, 0.9 percent more than in the same period last year, exporters association Cecaff said in a monthly report on Wednesday. Although they were stable compared to the previous year, April shipments are much smaller than seen in the same month in 2014 or 2015, for example, when Brazil exported volumes close to 3 million bags, and confirms a trend for a reduced Brazilian share of the global coffee market.
Cecaff said cumulative exports of green coffee in the 2017/18 crop year, which starts officially in July, reached 23.05 million bags at the end of April, compared to 25.1 million bags in the same period a year before and 27.54 million bags two years ago. Cecaff's head, Nelson Carvalhaes, expects coffee shipments to grow in volume from June, when Brazilian farmers will be advancing with the harvest of a likely record crop.
Most analysts see Brazil's 2018/19 coffee crop close to 60 million bags, which would be an all-time production peak. A vast majority of green coffee lots exported in April were of arabicas (1.92 million bags), since local robusta producers are still recovering from a long period of low output. There is an expectation for higher exports of robusta in the coming crop.