Brazil stops shipping 453 bags of coffee in June

Brazil failed to ship 453.864 60-kg bags—equivalent to 1.375 containers—of coffee in June 2025, according to a survey conducted by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé) and its members. The failure to ship was due to the exhaustion of the country's port infrastructure, resulting in a loss of R$3,002 million for exporters due to additional costs for additional storage, detention, pre-stacking, and gate advances.

Since June 2024, when the entity began this survey, companies associated with Cecafé have accumulated losses of R$78,921 million due to these unforeseen expenses due to delays and changes in ship schedules and the outdated structure in the main ports where the product is shipped in Brazil.

The failure to ship this volume of coffee also prevented the country from receiving US$184,183 million, or R$1,022 billion, in foreign exchange revenue from its trade transactions in June of this year alone, considering the average Free on Board (FOB) export price of US$405,81 per bag (green coffee) and the average dollar exchange rate of R$5,5465 last month. This implies a lower transfer to producers, as Brazil is the country that transfers the largest share of export prices to coffee growers, at an average of over 90% in recent years.

"The new coffee harvest, mainly canephora (conilon + robusta), is slowly beginning to arrive for export, and since port infrastructure hasn't improved, we've already seen an increase of around 100 bags in the total volume that couldn't be shipped compared to May. This situation is likely to worsen, as the main coffee export movement is now occurring in the second half of the year, with the arrival of new coffees, including the Arabica variety," explains Eduardo Heron, technical director of Cecafé.

According to him, it is essential to adopt measures from the public and private sectors, such as, for example, speeding up terminal auctions, expanding yard and berth capacity, encouraging the diversification of modes, with investments in railways and waterways, and, mainly, the creation of logistical indicators that allow for the monitoring and adequate management of demands on Brazil's port infrastructure, so that ports evolve in the same proportion as the growth of cargo, given the constant advancement of national agribusiness, especially products that require containers for export, such as coffee, meat, cotton, sugar, cellulose, among others.

"The government announced a series of investments, which are undoubtedly positive, but which will take, under normal conditions, at least five years to complete. The problem is that we need emergency actions that enable immediate improvements or, at most, short-term improvements, as the agribusiness sectors that require containers continue to evolve and increasingly demand port infrastructure," he analyzes.

According to Heron, there is significant concern among containerized cargo sectors due to the limited participation of interested parties in the Tecon Santos 10 auction, which lacks proper justification or technical and legal basis. "This is because Technical Note No. 51, from the regulatory agency ANTAQ itself, demonstrates that 'scenario 3' includes measures to avoid competition and market concentration issues, allowing broad participation and thus preventing the process from going to court and being canceled this year," he comments.

Cecafé's technical director recalls that the off-season period for several commodities helped reduce pressure on terminals and shipping lines during the first half of 2025, "however, as there was no increase in port terminal capacity, the challenges will intensify in the second half of the year."

X-ray of delays

In June 2025, 49% of ships, or 151 of a total of 306 vessels, experienced delays or changed calls at Brazil's main ports, according to the Detention Zero Bulletin (DTZ), prepared by the startup ElloX Digital in partnership with Cecafé.

The Port of Santos, which handled 80% of coffee shipments in the first half of this year, recorded a 59% rate of ship delays or changes in port calls, affecting 95 of its 161 container vessels. The longest wait time last month was 37 days at the Santos port.

Also last month, only 7% of boarding procedures took more than four days for ships to open their gates at the Port of Santos. Another 60% took between three and four days, and 33% took less than two days.

The port complex in Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brazil's second-largest coffee exporter, with a 15,7% share of shipments from January to the end of June 2025, had a 57% delay rate last month, with the longest delay being 20 days between the first and last deadlines. This percentage indicates that 34 of the 60 vessels destined for coffee shipments had their ports of call changed.

Still in the first half of this year, 43% of export procedures took more than four days for container ships to open gates in Rio de Janeiro ports; 37% took between three and four days; and 21% took less than two days.