Brazil breaks coffee export record in 2020 due to pandemic

Rio de Janeiro – Brazil, the world’s leading producer and supplier of coffee, exported 44.5 million bags (60 kilos) of the bean last year, a volume 9.4% higher than that of 2019 and a record number for the country, despite the pandemic, business sources reported Monday.
In total, the South American giant received for the sale of green, soluble and roasted and ground coffee, 5.635 million dollars for shipments last year, 10.3% more than the income obtained in 2019.

According to the balance disclosed by the Council of Coffee Exporters of Brazil (Cecafé), the amount received by Brazil is equivalent to about 29,000 million reais, which represented an increase of 44.1% in the conversion to reais and thus which reached a participation of 5.6% in agro-industrial exports and 2.7% in total shipments from the country.

Of the total volume of grain shipped in 2020, 40.4 million bags were green coffee, representing an increase of 10.2% compared to 2019.
Among the types of green coffee, Arabica continues to lead foreign sales with 35.5 million bags, an increase of 8.4%, compared to 2019, and a historical mark for this type of bean.
They were followed by robusta and soluble coffee, respectively, and both broke records in 2020. Robusta with 4.9 million bags exported (+24.3%) and soluble with 4.1 million bags sold (+2 ,4 %)
“Due to the covid pandemic we are going through a challenging period but, at the same time, we had one of the largest harvests and we concluded with an export of 44.5 million bags, breaking a historical record,” said Nelson Carvalhaes, president of Cecafé , at a press conference.

According to the executive, the coffee sector manages all hygiene and safety measures so that the bean reaches more than 130 countries in the conditions required by the pandemic and under the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The results for December and 2020 show once again that, despite all the difficulties faced by the pandemic, the coffee agro-industrial chain maintained an excellent performance,” he added.

In the last month of 2020, Brazil also broke the mark by exporting 4.3 million bags of coffee, 38.6% more than in 2019 and the highest volume recorded in history for a month of December.

Grain sales in December represented revenues for Brazil of 541 million dollars, an increase of 37.1%.
This is the fourth consecutive month that the South American powerhouse has achieved a record in its external sales of coffee since November exports had also been the largest for the month in history.

The United States continues as the main destination for Brazilian grain with 8.1 million bags exported, which represents 18.3% of exports.
It is followed by Germany, with 7.6 million (17.1%), Belgium, with 3.7 million (8.4%), Italy, with 3 million bags (6.8%) and Japan, with 2.4 million bags (5.4%).
Brazil has more than 2.2 million cultivated hectares of coffee and of the more than 264,000 producers, 72% are small farmers.