Brazil’s coffee exporters posted their first year-on-year rise in green coffee shipments since late 2024 in May, as a surge in robusta exports offset weaker arabica volumes and lower international prices, according to Cecafé’s latest monthly report released on 11 June in São Paulo.
Comunicaffe and Portal do Holanda/Reuters report that Brazil’s green coffee exports reached 2,728,267 bags in May 2026, up 4.2% from May 2025. Portal do Holanda/Reuters notes this is the first monthly year-on-year increase in green coffee exports since November 2024, marking a break in a run of declining comparative volumes.
The composition of those shipments has shifted sharply. Canephora (robusta and conilon) exports jumped 193% year-on-year to 601,756 bags in May, while arabica exports fell 11.9% to 2,126,511 bags, according to Comunicaffe and Portal do Holanda/Reuters. Comunicaffe adds that total coffee exports, including soluble and roasted, reached 3,088,877 bags in May, 3.6% higher than a year earlier.
Despite the higher volumes, export earnings weakened. Portal do Holanda/Reuters reports that total export revenue for all coffee in May was US$1.05 billion, down 16% from May 2025, as the average price per bag fell 18.9% to US$340.06. The same report attributes the revenue decline to this lower average price level.
In a statement quoted by Café Manhuaçu, Cecafé Deliberative Council President Márcio Ferreira said the modest monthly increase is linked to the arrival of the new crop’s robusta. “A leve alta em maio é reflexo da entrada de cafés colhidos já neste ano, especialmente os canéforas. Esse movimento também deve ser notado com os arábicas nos próximos meses,” he stated, indicating that arabica from the current harvest is expected to appear more clearly in export statistics later in the year.
Over a longer horizon, exports remain lower than last year. Comunicaffe reports that Brazil’s total coffee exports between January and May 2026 reached 14,744,701 bags, a 12.4% decline compared with the same period in 2025. According to Portal do Holanda/Reuters, export revenue in the first five months of 2026 fell 14.6% year-on-year to US$5.552 billion, underscoring the combined effect of reduced shipments earlier in the year and lower prices.
Green coffee data from Comunicaffe show that January–May 2026 shipments totaled 13,017,074 bags, down 14.1% year-on-year. Within that, arabica exports fell 21.3% to 11,126,317 bags, while canephora exports rose 86.5% to 1,890,757 bags, highlighting the growing role of robusta in Brazil’s export mix during this period.
While Cecafé focuses on realized shipments, other observers point to factors influencing export behavior. Cultivar Magazine cites Hedgepoint Global Markets as saying that exports for the 2025/26 cycle underperform due to reduced producer willingness to sell, price volatility and US tariffs. Cultivar Magazine also notes that market structure remains inverted, with shorter-term contracts trading above longer-term ones and higher financial costs leading destinations to postpone restocking.
On the demand side, Global Coffee Report reports that Brazil’s crop agency CONAB projects world coffee demand growth of 1.3% to 173.9 million bags, even as it expects that low remaining stocks from the previous cycle will limit significant price reductions. In Brazil, Comunicaffe notes that cumulative exports for the 2025/26 crop year from July to May reached 35,372,696 bags, 17.7% lower in volume, with a total value of US$13.612 billion, 0.7% below the previous cycle.
