Problems with coffee shipments result in losses of R$ 3.2 billion

More than 4,000 containers of coffee were not shipped at the Port of Santos in the first nine months of this year due to logistical bottlenecks (Vanessa Rodrigues/Arquivo AT)

From January to September this year, Brazil accumulated 2.155 million bags of coffee (or 6,529 containers) that were not shipped through the country’s ports, resulting in a loss of R\$ 3.2 billion. The Port of Santos alone accounts for R\$ 1.9 billion of this total — with 1.339 million bags (or 4,058 containers) not shipped, according to a survey by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé).

“Brazil faces several infrastructure challenges at its ports, leading to congestion, delays, and changes in vessel schedules due to high volume, which contributes to the terminal yards being overcrowded and disrupts the export flow. In this context, the exhaustion of the country's port infrastructure is reflected across various ports, including Santos”, says Cecafé's technical director, Eduardo Heron.

Heron attributes the high rates at the Port of Santos to its status as the largest shipping unit in South America, handling the highest volume of cargo. As expected, the losses are also substantial.

“Using the same criteria to calculate the total value of US\$ 580.55 million (R\$ 3.2 billion) that the country lost in revenue (based on the average price of green coffee at US\$ 269.40 and an average exchange rate of R\$ 5,5410 in September), the value attributed to Santos is US\$ 360.8 million (R\$ 1.9 billion)”, explains Cecafé's technical director.

Extra costs and waiting times The situation becomes even more critical when analyzing the losses coffee exporters have accumulated due to the lack of adequate port infrastructure for containerized cargo in Brazil. “Our members reported an additional cost of R\$ 5.9 million”, says Heron.

In September alone, 69% of vessels, or 190 out of a total of 277 ships, had schedule changes or delays in exporting coffee at the main Brazilian ports, according to the Detention Zero (DTZ) Bulletin, prepared by the startup ElloX Digital in partnership with Cecafé.

The longest waiting time was recorded at the Port of Santos, with 38 days between the opening of the first and last deadlines. The survey shows that the Santos port complex had an 84% rate of container ship delays in September, affecting 108 of the 129 vessels.

Last month, only 10% of the shipping procedures had a period of more than four days of gate opening by ships at the Port of Santos. Another 36% had between three and four days, and 54% had less than two days.

“The percentage of ships with a gate open for less than 48 hours reached its worst level since January 2023, when we started the survey. Even more concerning is the fact that 42 ships didn’t have a gate opening at all, further increasing the scenario of extra and high costs for exporters”, adds the technical director.

The other side When contacted, the Santos Port Authority (APS) responded in a statement that “the situation mentioned by Cecafé has been under attention since the first disclosure. ”

“For this reason, discussions have been taking place with the main parties involved in this process, including Cecafé itself, the administrations of other ports, the São Paulo State Port Operators Union (Sopesp), shipping companies, and container terminals at the Port of Santos, among others”, the statement says.

The note adds that “discussions are ongoing, so that APS can fulfill its role of mediating the situation, as it is not responsible for executing the operations, with the aim of finding the best model to mitigate the mentioned delays.”

“This is a task that takes time, as it involves various scenarios and many institutions. APS remains available to collaborate wherever possible to find the best solution to improve this situation”, the statement concludes.