Sao Paulo, July 14 - Brazil's roasted and ground coffee exports more than doubled to 80,000 60-kg bags in the first quarter of 2008 from 32,000 bags in the same period of 2007, Brazil's Coffee Industry Association (ABIC) said.
Brazil has traditionally played a small part in the processed coffee export market despite its rank as the world's top coffee grower, but its coffee industry is aiming for a firmer foothold in value-added exports.
"We must attribute this growth to the maturity of Brazilian enterprise in the sense that it has seen the external market is an important alternative and complement to the domestic market," ABIC director Nathan Herszkowicz told Reuters in an interview.
Revenue jumped to $20.4 million between January and June this year compared with $6.69 million in the same period a year earlier. Over the 12 months to June, $40 million of roasted and ground coffee, 155,000 bags in total, were exported.
This did not include the 3.39 million bags of soluble coffee shipped from July 2007 to June 2008, 8 percent more than the 12 previous months according to Cecafe, Brazil's coffee exporter council.
Herszkowicz said the Apex Brasil export promotion programme sponsored by the Ministry for Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, had helped promote exports of processed coffee, still tiny compared to raw bean exports of 29 million bags a year.
"Compared to 2002 when there was no Apex programme, it has increased ten fold," Herszkowicz said, adding sales abroad then totaled just $4 million.
But import tariffs in European countries and challenges marketing the Brazilian product in a consolidated sector with long-established brands were key hurdles, he said.
North America was the biggest buyer of Brazil's processed coffee, buying 65 percent of the amount exported.
Herszkowicz was upbeat on the outlook for domestic coffee consumption. As Brazil's economy booms and incomes rise, he estimated coffee consumption would grow 5 percent this year to 18 million bags and reach 21 million bags by 2010.
Higher incomes would also raise demand locally for higher quality or gourmet coffees, he said, mirroring a trend that has seen consumers grow increasingly choosy about the origin and taste of the coffee they drink.