Coffeeson
themove
I
n the 2016 calendar year, Brazil ex-
ported 34 million sacks of coffee,
down 8.1% from the previous year.
Brazil’s share of global shipments
dropped to 29%, against 32% in 2015.
The blame for the smaller market share
goes to the shrinking shipments of co-
nilon coffee, which remained at 580 thou-
sand sacks in 2016, down 86.2% from
2015. It was the worst result since 1997.
Brazil’s shrinking exports were compen-
sated by Vietnam and Indonesia.
In the 2016/17 coffee growing season,
the countries that export coffee negotiat-
ed 49.5 million sacks of coffee, from Octo-
ber 2016 to February 2017, up 6.7% from
the volume shipped in the same months
in the previous season, according to the
ICO report, released in February 2017. In
the five months, Vietnam shipped abroad
AlthoughBrazil’sshareofworldcoffeeexports
hasshrunk,andnowrepresents29%,theCountry
continuestobebyfarthebiggestexporterofthebeans
10.175 million sacks, up 11.5%. Brazil ex-
ported more, 14.883 million sacks, down
7.1% from the previous year.
Coffee prices (Colombian Milds, Oth-
er Milds, Brazilian Naturals and Robusta)
dropped slightly in 2017. A more serious
decline occurred in the price of Robus-
ta (1.7%), which dropped from 108.32 to
106.49 U.S. dollar cents per pound. Accord-
ingtoICOsources,thedeclineinthepriceof
Robusta reflects the biggest high occurred
in more than five years in the months of
January 2017, and the debates on the per-
mission or prohibition of imports of Robus-
ta coffee by Brazil. In themeantime, foreign
purchases did not materialize.
n
Smaller market share is related to the
declining shipments of conilon
