Backlog of Coffee Trucks Gradually Gets Solved in Colombia: Asoexport Director
Backlog of Coffee Trucks Gradually Gets Solved in Colombia: Asoexport Director
Bogota (Coffee Network )- Containers are gradually returning to Colombia , gradually easing the a backlog of coffee truckers outside Caribbean ports at times that the country picks its main harvest and at times of record high coffee prices.
The Colombian coffee exporters association had said on Friday there is a disruption in the logistics chain for Colombian coffee exports, due to the lack of availability of containers and space on ships for the shipment of Colombian coffee to the different destination ports, Gustavo Gomez, general manager of Asoexport said.
The disruption in logistics is more severe at the Caribbean ports of Cartagena and Santa Marta, the country’s second and third largest receipts of coffee in market share, Gomez told Coffee Network in an interview. But the backlog is gradually unblocking thanks to pressure of media that prompted the arrival of more containers, Gomez told Coffee Network on the sidelines of the 93th coffee summit.
A total of 76 coffee trucks were able to unload coffee at the seven ports that handle coffee, which include the Cartagena ports Contecar and Sociedad Portuaria de Cartagena, as well as the Pacific ports of Aguadulce and Sociedad Portuaria de Buenaventura.
A total of 16 trucks loaded with coffee were able to unload coffee on 3 December at the Cartagena port of Contecar, compared with 8 on Friday.
At Sociedad Portuaria de Cartagena, 6 trucks were able to unload coffee yesterday, compared with 7 on Friday.
Sociedad Portuaria de Cartagena and Contecar usually receive 20-25 trucks respectively each day.
At the Pacific port of Sociedad Portuaria de Buenaventura, 25 trucks were able to unload coffee yesterday. The other Pacific port of Aguadulce 9 trucks unloaded coffee yesterday.
The port of Sociedad Portuaria de Santa Marta is the one with the highest stockpiles of coffee at warehouses. It has 18,645 bags, equivalent to 95% of total capacity, down from the 105% of capacity reported on Friday. The port of Contecar in Cartagena is next with 18,301 bags.
Sociedad Portuaria de Cartagena has 15,909 bags stored at warehouses.
In the Pacific, the port of Sociedad Portuaria de Buenaventura has 38,250 bags, while Aguadulce has 5,403.
The port of Compas has 8,120 bags of coffee stockpiled at warehouses.
Gustavo Gomez is traveling today to Cartagena to meet with executives of the ports to ensure a prompt solution to the backlog.
The shipping agency Marsk is the one that is reporting no availability, said the source.
One truck loaded with coffee is worth COP 1.2 billion ($280,000) and they are running security risks for standing outside the ports, he said. Coffee stuck in the trucks are also running the risk of getting damage because of the high humidity.
“This positive outlook (of the harvest and exports) could be threatened because there is an interruption in the logistical chain for coffee exports, due to the lack of availability of containers and space on ships for the shipment of Colombian coffee to the different ports of destination,” said Gustavo Gómez, president of Asoexport.
Gómez added that “this comes at an inopportune time, threatening the arrival of export income to the coffee-growing areas of the country, since we currently have a very good harvest not seen since 2021 and a level of historical international prices, so the good news that represents the high price of the internal cargo of coffee for the more than 550,000 coffee growers is overshadowed by the difficulties in exporting the bean.”
The Colombian government along with the coffee growers federation are holding negotiations with shipping companies to migrate from 20-foot containers to 40- foot containers, which are larger and more common nowadays.
Gomez said the 20-foot containers are becoming scarce, adding further difficulties to get those containers and evacuate the coffee that is stuck at the ports.
Colombian coffee exports, between January and October 2024, grew 17%, registering 9.8 million 60kg bags sold abroad, according to figures from the National Federation of Coffee Growers (FNC), with the United States, Canada, Belgium, Germany and Japan as its main destinations.
Colombia is expected to pick more than 13 million bags this year of which some 12 million should be exported.
By Diana Delgado





