Brazil stops shipping 356 bags of coffee in May

According to data updated by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé) together with its associates, the sector was unable to ship 356.322 60 kg bags of the product – equivalent to 1.080 containers – in May 2025, which generated a loss of R$2,686 million in the companies' cash flow due to unforeseen costs with additional storage, detentions, pre-stacking and early gates.

From June 2024 – when the entity began this survey – until the end of May, Brazilian coffee exporters accumulated losses of R$75,919 million due to these extra expenses due to the outdated structure in the main ports where the product is shipped in Brazil.

The impossibility of shipping this volume of coffee also prevented the country from receiving US$ 154,63 million, or R$ 876,28 million, as foreign exchange revenue from its commercial transactions in May of this year alone, considering the average Free on Board (FOB) export price of US$ 433,97 per bag (green coffee) and the average dollar exchange rate of R$ 5,6668 the month before last.

Although there has been a reduction in the volume of cargo stopped at ports awaiting shipment compared to previous months, Cecafé's technical director, Eduardo Heron, recalls that the scenario remains critical.

“This reduction in the volume that was stored, waiting for ships to be shipped, reflects the end of the coffee off-season in Brazil and this is very worrying, as the new harvest is starting to arrive now in June and July and we will certainly see new and increasing delays in shipments and losses to exporters, with overcrowded yards, as the port infrastructure remains the same, while cargo that requires containers for export, such as cotton, sugar and coffee itself, continues to grow”, he explains.

In this scenario, he reinforces that it is crucial every day that measures are adopted to improve logistical bottlenecks and for ports to have a better structure, so that they can keep up with the evolution of Brazilian agribusiness.

“The investments announced so far, such as the auction of Tecon Santos 10, the concession of the maritime entrance channel to the port, the tunnel connecting Santos and Guarujá and the third route down the Anchieta Highway to Baixada Santos are very important for Brazilian foreign trade, but they will take approximately five years to be delivered, under normal processing conditions. Despite this, we saw the ANTAQ board decide to restrict the participation of interested parties in the Tecon Santos 10 auction, including shipowners, ignoring scenario 3 contained in Technical Note 51, from the Agency itself, increasing the potential for judicialization of the negotiation of the terminal, which makes no sense and will cause even more losses for cargo, due to the lack of adequate capacity”, he explains.

X-ray of delays

According to the Detention Zero Bulletin (DTZ), prepared by the startup ElloX Digital in partnership with Cecafé, in May 2025, 56% of ships, or 169 out of a total of 300 vessels, had delays or changed calls at the main ports in Brazil.

The Port of Santos, which accounted for 80,8% of coffee shipments between January and May this year, recorded a rate of 64% of delays or changes in vessel schedules, which involved 113 of the total 177 container ships. The longest waiting time last month was 28 days at the Santos dock.

Also last month, only 9% of boarding procedures took more than four days for the gate to be opened by ships at the Santos pier. Another 50% took between three and four days and 41% took less than two days.

The port complex of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), the second largest exporter of coffee in Brazil, with a 14,9% share of shipments in the first five months of 2025, had a delay rate of 69% last month, with the longest interval being 16 days between the first and last deadline. This percentage indicates that 38 of the 55 vessels destined for shipments of the product had their ports of call changed.

Between January and May of this year, 18% of export procedures took more than four days for container ships to open their gates at Rio de Janeiro ports; 56% took between three and four days; and 25% took less than two days.