The flow of coffee shipments has increased in recent months due to rising prices and greater sales interest. The peak of consumption in the Northern Hemisphere also helps this performance. The world shipped 12.17 mln bags in December 2023, which corresponds to an increase of 14% compared to the same period last year. Global coffee shipments in the last quarter of the year (Oct/Dec) rose 6.8%, totaling 32.42 mln bags. The data are from the ICO.
The improvement in the last quarter was not enough to reverse the poor performance in 2023. last year’s exports amounted to 124.99 mln bags, which corresponds to a drop of 3.2% compared to 129, 10 mln bags shipped in 2022. Arabica shipments fell 6.5%, from 80.41 to 75.22 mln bags in 2023. In the case of robusta, they rose to 49.77 mln bags, an increase of 2.2% over the previous year.
The partial indicators for January point to the maintenance of a good flow. Brazil exported 3.7 mln bags of green coffee last January, according to information from Secex (Foreign Trade Secretariat). The pace remains accelerated, and the target is for total shipments of around 44 mln bags in the 23/24 season, out of which 40 mln bags are green coffee. Colombia exported 935 thousand bags in January, according to the National Federation of Coffee Growers, up 12% from January 2023, when 832 thousand bags were shipped, which is in line with the idea of a larger crop in the current 23/24 season.