Brazil March coffee exports to Arab nations fetch $20mn

NEW YORK (Commodity Online): With coffee prices surging in the international markets, coffee exports of Brazil to Arab nations registered monetary jump of 44% and touched $20 million in March when compared to February.
This is when the volumes have registered a small month-on-month jump of 5% reaching 109,700 60kg bags of coffee, according to arabianbusiness.com.
The main markets that imported coffee were Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.
The total exports for the quarter raked in $58.9 million (for 351,000 bags, seven percent higher), 36 percent more than in Q1 2010.
Meanwhile, the coffee output of Brazil would be 13% smaller this harvest when compared to last year’s, according to the agriculture ministry of Brazil. Additionally, a recent Rabobank report has perked up its arabica forecast for the rest of 2011 attributed to a supply deficit.
Further, a Goldman Sachs report has also been in favor of enhanced prices for coffee as demand across the emerging markets like India and China are expected to remain robust even as Brazilian output would diminish.
In March, robusta coffee exports from Brazil  quadrupled to touch 183,421 bags, Bloomberg cited Coffee Exporters Council, known as Cecafe as saying.
Arabica shipments for the same month plummeted 6.9% to reach 2.2 million bags.
Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee and biggest producer of Arabica variety. Vietnam is the largest producer of robusta coffee.
Meanwhile, there are reports that adverse weather characterized by above-average rain fall slated for next month may negatively affect coffee output in Colombia, the second-largest producer of washed Arabica beans after Brazil.
Colombia’s coffee exports for March soared 53% to touch 884,000 60-kg bags even as output jumped to reach 779,000 sacks a surge of 24%.
The country is expecting a 9-10 million bags output this year, says brecorder.com
The time ending February saw Colombaian exports jumping 12% to touch 659,000 60-kg bags when compared to a year earlier. Output for the same period soared 18% to reach 764,000 sacks.

(Source: http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Brazil-March-coffee-exports-to-Arab-nations-fetch-$20mn-38229-3-1.html)