CoffeeNetwork (New York) - Brazilian coffee exporters continue to face intense logistical bottlenecks this year due to the lack of adequate infrastructure for containerized cargo in Brazil's ports. In 2024, multiple delays and constant changes in the number of ships for export, in addition to frequent cargo rolls, caused the country to accumulate 1.717 million bags – 5,203 containers – of coffee not shipped as of October. This data is from a survey by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé) with associated exporters.
With an average FOB export price of US$ 285.21 per bag (green coffee) and the average of the dollar at R$ 5.6235 in October, the non-shipment of these bags of coffee implies that the country failed to receive, in the first 10 months of 2024, US$ 489.72 million, or R$ 2.754 billion, as foreign exchange revenue.
As a result of these logistical obstacles in Brazilian ports, coffee exporters accumulate a "port loss" of R$ 6.986 million this year, which involves extra expenses with additional storage, detentions, pre-stacking and anticipation of gates.
"These bottlenecks and losses demonstrate that our ports have not evolved in a satisfactory and proportional way to the growth of national agribusiness, especially to serve products that are exported by containers", analyzes Eduardo Heron, technical director of Cecafé.
Heron notes that the Brazilian port infrastructure has been exhausted and it is urgent that measures be adopted to improve conditions, with a focus on efficiency and competitiveness, for exporters.
In addition, Cecafé's technical director also points out the need to invest in highways, railways and waterways to stimulate the diversification of modes. "This will enable a more dynamic turnover of cargo in the ports, so that this whole set of initiatives allows for a better flow of Brazilian crops, especially containerized ones," he explains.
According to the Zero Detention Bulletin (DTZ), prepared by the startup ElloX Digital in partnership with Cecafé, 69% of ships, or 218 out of a total of 317 container ships, had delays or changes in stopovers to export coffee in the main ports of Brazil in October this year.
The longest waiting period last month was 58 days, recorded at the largest port in the Southern Hemisphere, in Santos (SP). In addition, 23 ships did not even have a gate opened, which contributed to the non-shipment of 1.7 million bags (5,203 containers).
Heron recalls that, despite this critical scenario in national port logistics, Brazil has recorded successive records in exports of coffee this year thanks to the commitment of the exporters' logistics teams in the search for shipping alternatives and the efforts that port terminals have made to meet the demands of the coffee export trade.
"In October, Brazil exported the highest monthly volume of coffee in history, with 4.926 million bags shipped abroad. This record, however, is not due to a favorable scenario in the country's ports, but rather due to the herculean work of the logistics teams of our members, who have been looking for other ways to be able to ship, such as the exports of five ships via bulk cargo.”
According to data from the DTZ Bulletin, in October, the Port of Santos, still the main terminal for the flow of Brazilian coffees abroad, with a 67.4% share, registered a 74% rate of delay or change in ship calls, which involved 125 of the total of 169 vessels.
Just last month, only 10% of the boarding procedures had a period longer than four days of gate opened by ships at the Santos pier. Another 46% had between three and four days and 44% had less than two days.
The port complex of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), the second largest exporter of coffees in Brazil with a 28.1% share of shipments, had a delay rate of 70% last month, with the longest interval being 35 days between the first and last deadline. This percentage implies that 46 of the 66 ships destined for shipments of the product suffered a change in stopovers.
Also in October of this year, 20% of the export procedures had a period of more than four days of open gate by container ships in the ports of Rio de Janeiro; 27% recorded between three and four days; and 53% had less than two days.
Alexis Rubinstein
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