According to the July coffee export report released by the Brazilian exporters council Cecafe, in July this year Brazil's total coffee exports reached 3.774 million bags (60 kg/bag), an increase of 25.7% compared with 3.002 million bags in the same period last year. Foreign exchange earnings were US$932.5 million, up 47.9% year on year.

Among them, Robusta coffee performed exceptionally well, growing 82.2% compared with the same period last year, with about 900,000 bags exported, the second-largest monthly volume in history, second only to 902,000 bags in November 2023. Arabica coffee exports also rose 13%, reaching 2.491 million bags.

In the first 7 months of 2024, Brazil's total coffee exports were 2.8146 million bags, up 46.3% compared with the first 7 months of last year. In addition, because global coffee production has performed poorly, coffee prices have kept rising wildly.Earlier, Brazil was affected by dry weather with little rain, and coffee production and quality declined; several Brazilian institutions have lowered their forecasts for Brazil's coffee production in the new crop season, and coffee prices may remain high for a long time.

Currently, the average spot price of coffee in Brazil has risen to its highest level since February 2022, with the arabica spot price at 1,419.72 reais per bag (60 kg/bag), up 5.22% compared with June this year and up 73.2% compared with July last year.

At the same time, the average spot price of robusta coffee in Brazil is 1,270.41 reais per bag (60 kg/bag), up 4.6% month on month from June and up 95.66% compared with July last year. Therefore, from January to July this year, Brazil's foreign exchange earnings from coffee exports reached 6.277 billion US dollars, an increase of 50% over July 2023.

However, the Brazilian exporters association is still concerned about export problems at ports, which are affecting coffee exports. Since 2022, the delay rate at the Port of Santos, Brazil's largest coffee export port, has remained above 80%, and although it eased somewhat in July, the delay rate at the Port of Santos was 77%. But in July alone, 1.262 million bags of coffee that were not shipped were reported to have caused losses of 1.735 billion reais (about 313 million US dollars, with the July US dollar to real exchange rate at about 5.54).

It is understood that the main reasons for port delays in Brazil are ship delays, weather effects, deadline changes, cargo rollovers, reduced container availability and insufficient space at port terminals. In addition, traders and exporters have accumulated losses of 7.456 million reais due to pre-stacking, extra storage costs, detention, and additional and unforeseen costs of early customs clearance.

Also, at the end of July, Santa Catarina state in Brazil was shrouded in sea fog, causing the port to close, and in mid-August, waves continued to appear in the waters off Espirito Santo state, with wave heights reaching 4 m. This caused inbound and outbound cargo ships at the Port of Santos to pause due to severe weather conditions, once again worsening delays at the port.This is not conducive to the development of the local coffee industry: direct economic losses, inability to deliver on time, declining credibility, a possible reduction in international traders choosing Brazilian coffee, and an impact on the international influence of Brazilian coffee.

In addition, in March of this year, according to Brazil's Minister of Ports and Airports Silvio Costa Filho and the President of the Port of Santos Authority, Pomini, the Ministry of Ports and Airports will cooperate with government departments at all levels as well as private enterprises to launch a batch of engineering projects at the Port of Santos during 2024 to 2028. These involve tunnels, navigation channels, parking lots, berths, roads and more, in order to promote the port's logistics and transport development, with a total estimated investment of 12.6 billion reais (about 2.53 billion US dollars), but so far, no obvious results have been seen.

Therefore, the president of Brazil's exporters committee said that the second half of the year is the largest transport period for Brazil's exports of bulk goods including coffee, cotton and sugar, and that if the port problems are not resolved, it will cause considerable damage to all Brazilian exporters, especially agricultural exporters, and will not be conducive to the development of Brazilian coffee and other crops.

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