Soluble coffee industry prepares plan to raise exports in 50%

Facing a stagnation scenario, the national industry of instant coffee will launch a plan to raise exports and domestic consumption of the product. According to Aguinaldo José de Lima, Director of institutional relations of the Brazilian Association of soluble coffee (Abics), the goal is to increase 50% in exports and domestic consumption of the product in the next 10 years. The goal is to achieve a revenue of $ 1 billion with external sales.
Five executives of soluble coffee industries of the country gathered today in Sao Paulo to discuss the plan, which must be presented by the end of the month to the other sectors of the productive chain of coffee, producers, exporters and the Government. Also present were representatives of the ministries of agriculture, development and export promotion agency (Apex).
The industry argues that the Brazil always stopped the world leadership of soluble coffee exports, but faces stagnation for more than 10 years. Last year, exports totaled 3.6 million bags in 2014, the equivalent of $ million package. Yet as Abics, while consumption grew 29% in that period in the world, Brazil's participation in global exports reduced from 14.5% to 9.8%.
According to Lima, the development plan of the soluble coffee from Brazil, as it is being called, aims to tackle structural problems in the chain, affecting the competitiveness of the Brazilian product. One of the issues that you want to treat the plan concerns the return of ICMS credits withheld export operations. As more than 70% of the Brazilian production of soluble is exported, the amount is relevant.
In addition, the industry also wants to reduce the tariff barriers to exports of instant coffee. Today the European Union the product rate in 9% and 8.8% in Japan. "The plan is to work in international fora in order to soften or overturn the rates," said the Director of Abics. He said Japan and the European Union came to account for 45% of the volume of exported by Brazil soluble, but the slice fell to 23% by tariff barriers.
The sector also supports the import of coffee for the production of soluble, via drawback, to face the moments in which the raw material is with high prices in the domestic market. But on the strength of the Brazilian producers to imports, another alternative, according to Abics, would be "compensatory policies", as government programs for equalization of prices of coffee.
Lima explained that any contemplariam product imports of species of origins as Viet Nam conilon, Indonesia and Ivory Coast.