February 04th, 2016

SAO PAULO - Brazil's largest coffee cooperative Cooxupe expects exports of the commodity to rise 12.5 percent to 4.6 million bags from the crop that will begin harvesting in May, the co-op's commercial director, Lucio Dias, told Reuters. The cooperative that is centered in Brazil's richest arabica growing region of southern Minas Gerais expects to export 4.09 million 60-kg bags from the drought-hit crop harvested in 2015. The new crop should start harvest in May. Dias said Cooxupe expects to move a total of 6 million bags this coming season, with 4.89 million coming from cooperative members and 1.1 million bags that it plans to buy from non-members. The co-op expects to trade 5.19 million bags of the current crop. Some of the increased volume and exports that Cooxupe expects will come from new offices that it opened over the past year as well as new members it accepted as it shored up its origination of coffee following two years of drought. Excluding new members, existing members' movement of coffee through the co-op should grow to 4.3 million bags, up from 3.7 million bags from the same members expected during the current season, Dias said.  "We expect roughly the same amount of coffee from our members in South Minas this year, with even some contributing less," Dias said about the region that accounts for as much as 25 percent of all of Brazil's coffee output.  "The real gains this year are expected from the Cerrado region. It was extremely affected by the drought last year," he said. Brazil's Cerrado region of western Minas Gerais produces some of the state's best quality arabica but farms in the region rely predominantly on irrigation. Even so, the drought and high temperatures took their toll on the previous harvest. Weather has improved across most of the coffee belt with early spring rains in recent months contributing to a good flowering period. Earlier on Wednesday, Brazilian export Terra Forte forecast the new crop at 54.17 million bags, up from 47.28 million last year. Dias said producer stocks held by its members are at their lowest in 10 years following two years of drought, and although the cooperative has stocks on hand, most of them are already committed to deliveries scheduled for the coming months.