SAO PAULO: Brazil’s green coffee exports reached 2.40 million 60-kg bags in August, down 7.4 percent from 2.59 million bags a year ago, exporters association Cecafe said on Tuesday, adding it would revise the number next month due to a port strike that was complicating data collection.

August shipments were improved from July, which were the lowest in more than a year at 1.65 million bags.

The country, which is the world’s largest producer and exporter of the commodity, is struggling with its third year of drought that has damaged key regions of the growing belt, most recently in the robusta areas of northern Espirito Santo.

“Due to a customs agents’ strike at the Port of Santos, it was impossible to close the monthly export data accurately,” Cecafe said in its monthly release on exports, adding that it would update the numbers in the coming weeks once fresh data was available.

Slightly more than 70 percent of Brazil’s coffee flows out of Santos, with 12 percent flowing out through Rio de Janeiro and 8 percent from Vitoria, in Espirito Santo state.

Arabica coffee made up the bulk of the green coffee exports last month, with 2.36 million bags, 7.5 percent more than a year ago. Robusta exports plunged to 39,327 bags, down 90 percent from the same month last year due to the drought damage in the main robusta grower Espirito Santo earlier this year.—Reuters