According to a survey conducted by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé) among its members, exporting companies recorded a loss of R$ 4,631 million due to the non-shipment of 1.475 containers – equivalent to 486.303 60 kg bags – stuffed with coffee in December 2025 because of outdated infrastructure in the country's main ports.
"Truck queues, overcrowded yards, lack of berths, cargo rollovers, delays, and changes to ship schedules generated these multimillion-dollar losses due to additional storage, pre-stacking, and detentions," explains the organization's technical director, Eduardo Heron.
With the inclusion of December's figures, the survey indicates that exporters incurred an extra expense of R$ 66,1 million due to the non-shipment of coffee in the accumulated 12 months of 2025 as a result of this scenario.
“On average, 55% of ships experienced delays or schedule changes, and 1.824 containers stuffed with coffee – 601.819 bags – were not exported each month, which caused Brazil to lose US$2,640 billion – R$14,670 billion – in foreign exchange revenue in 2025,” reveals the technical director of Cecafé.
According to him, the record-breaking overall movement and shipments at ports, announced by public authorities, make it difficult to understand the current scenario of exhaustion and losses caused to various sectors, since these results for foreign trade as a whole "mask" the challenges faced by exporters, especially those in the containerized cargo segment.
“It’s not just coffee that faces these obstacles in port infrastructure to carry out its shipments, but all cargo that depends on containers, as we have learned from leaders in other sectors, such as sugar and cotton, among others. Our leaders need to be aware of this reality and the losses incurred in meeting record demands so that they implement appropriate public policies to try to resolve the bottlenecks quickly, encouraging the diversification of transport modes, expanding the supply of yard and berth capacity in port terminals, as well as deepening drafts to accommodate large vessels, for example. Only in this way will the country stop losing billions of dollars in revenue,” he explains.
Heron recalls that, at the end of 2024, the Santos Commercial Association (ACS) promoted a meeting between the Santos Port Authority (APS) and associations representing the coffee (Cecafé), cotton (Anea), sugar (Aexa) and tree-derived products (IBÁ) sectors, an opportunity in which these sectoral agribusiness entities, which use containers for shipping their cargo, were able to report their difficulties and losses to the public service.
"At that time, it became clear that the logistical challenges stemming from the depletion of Santos' port infrastructure were affecting not only coffee, but also other sectors important to the port of Santos," he recalls.
In the example of coffee – he adds – the failure to ship the product due to outdated port infrastructure implies lower income, including for Brazilian producers.
“Brazil is the country that passes on the highest Free on Board (FoB) value of exports to its coffee growers, averaging over 90% in recent harvests. Therefore, the non-shipment of coffee due to logistical bottlenecks not only represents lower foreign exchange revenue and losses for exporters, but also less income for coffee growers, who work hard, facing the challenges of the activity, such as adverse weather conditions and high production costs, so that we can deliver the best and most diverse sustainable coffees to our customers on all continents,” he comments.
The technical director of Cecafé also mentions that, from 2016 to 2025, Brazilian agribusiness exports registered a growth of 72%, jumping from 158,9 million to 273,1 million tons, according to data from AgroStat of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa), showing an average annual growth rate of 6%.
"If this scenario of agricultural development continues and infrastructure investments proceed in a slow and bureaucratic manner, Brazilian foreign trade will continue to accumulate losses, and the country will continue to lose competitiveness and opportunities," he concludes.
Heron projects that the outlook is even more negative with the possibility of legal action being taken against the Tecon Santos 10 auction due to an unfounded and evidence-free recommendation, based on hypothetical speculations — according to the report from the technical area of the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) — issued by the Court's reviewing minister and supported by some of his peers, which restricted the broad participation of shipowners and is expected to further delay the long-awaited offering of yard and berth capacity at the port of Santos.
“Our expectation is that the partnership established between Imetame Porto Aracruz and Hanseatic Global Terminals (HGT), a subsidiary of the Dutch shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, will attract coffee and other cargo to the state of Espírito Santo, aiming to relieve congestion at the Port of Santos and mitigate losses for coffee exporters, who are facing difficulties in consolidating their shipments. And, to that end, Cecafé will continue its efforts to reduce the risks and losses to Brazil's coffee export trade,” concludes Heron.
In December 2025, 52% of ships, or 187 out of a total of 361 vessels, experienced delays or changes to their port calls at major Brazilian ports, according to the Detention Zero Bulletin (DTZ), prepared by the startup ElloX Digital in partnership with Cecafé.
The Port of Santos, which accounted for 78,7% of coffee shipments between January and December 2025, recorded a 65% rate of delays or changes to ship schedules, involving 105 out of a total of 162 container ships. The longest waiting time in the previous month was 82 days at the Santos dock.
It is worth noting that the 20% drop in Brazilian coffee exports has reduced the pressure and tension at the port on the coast of São Paulo, but there are still major challenges and containers stuck waiting to be shipped.
Also in December, only 4% of shipping procedures had a gate opening time longer than four days for ships at the port of Santos. Another 58% had between three and four days, and 38% had less than two days.
The port complex of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), the second largest exporter of Brazilian coffee, with a 17,7% share of shipments in 2025, had a delay rate of 41% in the month before last, with the largest interval being 13 days between the first and last deadline. This percentage indicates that 52 of the 127 ships destined for shipments of the product had their schedules altered.
Still in the last month of 2025, 38% of export procedures had a gate opening time of more than four days per container ship in the ports of Rio de Janeiro; 37% registered between three and four days; and 26% had less than two days.
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