Despite drought and frost in 2021, not everything is black for the Brazilian coffee sector as the wold’s biggest coffee growers cooperative Cooxupé, expects 2022 to be a record year.
Brazil’s top exporter, initially cut back on its export forecast for 2021 when it reduced the annual expected 6.5m coffee bags to 4.8m. Then, however, the co-op renewed its projection after shipping bottlenecks, drought, and frost reduced the amount of coffee for exportation. One reason for lower export quantities was farmers defaulting on their contracts after the coffee market value jumped over 60 %.
However, Cooxupé recently announced a better forecast for 2022, expecting to export 5.9m bags, compared to 4.9m in 2021. Due to lower yields, the co-op has increasingly been searching for coffee from non-member producers, who accounted in 2021 for 1.1 million deliveries. In 2022, this number is expected to climb to 1.5 million.
The co-op’s president, Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo, is optimistic about 2022.
We had huge upheavals last year, but we are starting 2022 in a much better position.
Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo, President of Cooxupé, in a phone interview with Bloomberg.
The Pandemic saw an acceleration of online buying. Digital Commerce 360 estimates that “the pandemic contributed an extra $218.53 billion to e-commerce’s bottom line in the USA over the past two years.”
This resulted in a shortage of freight, making shipping containers even more expensive and raising the coffee price. Cooxupé partially solved this problem by shipping coffee in bulk instead of 60 kg bags, saving space in containers.
So far, it has exported more than 300,000 60 kg bags this way, although there are significant additional risks for shipping break bulk like this, including being more exposed to the elements. (Note, bartalks is moderating a webinar from the CAA on shipping, with a panelist of experts to answer your shipping questions)
After two stormy years, coffee producers have finally looked to 2022 to be a calmer year, but the situation in Ukraine may additionally complicate matters. Coffee trees, of course, need nutrients. Russia and Bulgaria are responsible for around 26 % of Brazilian fertiliser supplies. The fertiliser prices started going up in autumn of 2021. The current situation in Ukraine and sanctions imposed on Russia could make matters even worse for Brazilian
