Delays at ports cause millions in losses for the coffee industry.

Outdated infrastructure at Brazilian ports and logistical bottlenecks continue to generate losses amounting to millions of reais for companies involved in coffee exports. According to the most recent survey conducted by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé), in October 2025, members of the organization suffered losses of R$ 8,719 million due to additional storage, pre-stacking, and detentions resulting from the inability to export 2.065 containers—681.590 60-kg bags—of the product.

The failure to ship this volume prevented the country from receiving US$278,08 million, or R$1,497 billion, in foreign exchange revenue from its commercial transactions in October of this year alone, considering the average Free on Board (FOB) export price of US$407,99 per bag (green coffee) and the average dollar exchange rate of R$5,3849 in the previous month.

“We have been warning about the chaotic infrastructure situation in Brazilian ports for some time, especially in Santos, the largest in the southern hemisphere, and the trend is for us to see a constant worsening, mainly due to the delay in the provision of yard and berth space at Tecon Santos 10,” points out Eduardo Heron, technical director of Cecafé.

According to him, the announcement of some investments, such as the hiring of a company to deepen the draft to 16 meters, the proposal for a third access ramp from the Anchieta Highway, and the implementation of the second access ramp to the Santos port, are "undoubtedly" very important for Brazilian foreign trade, "but will take at least five years to be delivered."

X-ray of delays

In October 2025, 52% of ships, or 204 out of a total of 393 vessels, experienced delays or changes to their port calls at major Brazilian ports, according to the DTZ Bulletin, produced by the startup ElloX Digital in partnership with Cecafé.

The Port of Santos, which accounted for 79% of coffee shipments from January to October of this year, recorded a 73% rate of delays or changes to ship schedules, involving 148 out of a total of 203 container ships. The longest waiting time in the previous month was 61 days at the Santos dock. 

Also in October, only 3% of shipping procedures had a gate opening time longer than four days for ships at the port of Santos. Another 48% had between three and four days, and 49% had less than two days.

The port complex of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), the second largest exporter of Brazilian coffee, with a 17,4% share of shipments between January and October 2025, had a delay rate of 30% in the month before last, with the longest interval being 77 days between the first and last deadline. This percentage indicates that 34 of the 113 ships destined for shipments of the product had their schedules altered.

Also in the tenth month of this year, 22% of export procedures had a gate opening time of more than four days per container ship in the ports of Rio de Janeiro; 48% registered between three and four days; and 30% had less than two days.