Brazil’s Coffee Exporters Council, Cecafé discusses logistical challenges with key stakeholders
February 08 - 2025
Coffee Geography Magazine
The National Secretary of Ports, Alex Ávila, the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé) participated in a meeting at the Ministry of Ports and Airports (MPor), in Brasília to discuss the movement of coffee and the challenges of shipments in Brazilian ports.
The private sector was represented by Cecafé’s Marcos Matos, the executive director of the counsil and Eduardo Heron, technical director, by members of the entity's Logistics Committee, Ronald Pires de Moraes (Cooxupé) and Rogério Fugazza (OFI) and André de Seixas, CEO of Logística Brasil. The government was represented by Bruno Neri, director of the Department of New Grants and Port Regulatory Policies, Carlos Magno, general coordinator of Port Leases, and Marcelo Vilela, infrastructure analyst at MPor.
The CEO of Cecafé highlighted the logistical impacts on the transfer of the Free on Board (FOB) price of exports to producers, emphasizing that Brazil is the country that transfers the most value from commercial transactions to coffee growers.
The technical director of Cecafé gave a quick explanation about the sector and exposed the challenges faced by coffee exporters in Brazil due to logistical challenges in the country's main ports.
“We listed the challenges that have been occurring in coffee exports due to the exhaustion of port infrastructure, revealed last year due to the growth in shipments of various containerized cargo, which contributed to the high rates of delays and changes in ship schedules and, consequently, left the terminal yards full and unable to receive new cargo,” says Heron.
During the meeting, he mentioned that these cargoes stuck in ports generate millions in losses for the sector and prevent more foreign currency from flowing into Brazil. Since June up to December 2024, coffee exporters suffered losses due to extra costs related to additional storage, detentions , pre-stacking and early gates , in addition to the country failing to receive USD$555.6 million in foreign exchange revenue.
“We report that, in order to try to mitigate these losses and bring improvements to this scenario, we have maintained dialogue with ship owners and terminals to try to understand the challenges more and more. The information we gathered from them showed that the exhaustion of the country’s port infrastructure has been causing challenges to various sectors, including maritime transporters and terminals, and that investments have not kept up with the evolution of Brazilian agribusiness. Last year alone, coffee shipments grew 28.5%, as did those of cotton, sugar, meat and pulp. This evolution revealed these challenges that impacted export performance,” reveals the technical director of Cecafé.
MPor representatives presented the various initiatives and investments that have been made in Brazil, specifically citing the Port of Santos, with the concession of the port channel and the launch of the notice for the TECON10 auction, which they estimate will take place in the second half of this year.
“We are pleased with the investments and projects announced by MPor and with the commitment of the Santos Port Authority (APS) in implementing and consolidating this logistics plan. As a follow-up, we agreed to continue this public-private dialogue, with Cecafé keeping the Ministry updated with the DTZ Bulletin indicators, and we are also available to help find ways to mitigate risks to exporters. Finally, we ask that, in addition to MPor, ANTAQ also promote the need for public policies to improve the logistics scenario in ports and improve regulation,” he concluded.