Brazil shipped 625,192 bags of coffee to the United States in September 2026, up 86.4% from a year earlier, as tariff uncertainty eased and U.S. buyers returned. Export revenue still fell. September shipments overall rose 3.1% to 3.894 million 60-kilogram bags, while revenue dropped 7.1% to US$1.282 billion. Brazil’s coffee exporters’ council, Conselho dos Exportadores de Café do Brasil (Cecafé), published the figures Friday, October 9.
Tariffs and Trade Decisions
Most Brazilian coffee has entered the United States without the additional tariff since November 2025, Cecafé said. Soluble coffee remained taxed until July 2026, when it joined the exception lists, according to a Rio Times report citing CNN Brasil.
Cecafé president Márcio Ferreira linked the recovery in U.S. purchases to reduced uncertainty over tariffs. “In November 2025, the US removed the tariff on most of the Brazilian product, but until July this year soluble coffee was still taxed,” he said in the council’s statement.
Ferreira said Cecafé worked with the US National Coffee Association, the main American industry group, and the Brazilian government. Together, he said, the groups secured confirmation that green coffee remained exempt in new U.S. investigations and got soluble coffee added to the exception lists. Those clarifications allowed business to resume, he said.
The details of the new U.S. investigations, and whether they could affect Brazilian coffee, weren't provided. Cecafé didn't specify how much of September’s U.S.-bound volume was green coffee versus soluble coffee, either, or publish U.S.-bound revenue separately.
The Export Numbers
The United States regained first place among buyers for the first nine months of 2026, passing Germany after strong purchases in August and September. U.S. buyers took 3.805 million bags from January through September, equal to 13.1% of Brazil’s exports. That was 12.8% below the same period in 2025.
Germany ranked second, with 3.307 million bags, down 11.4% from 3.732 million a year earlier. Italy took 2.597 million, up 11.6%; Belgium took 2.463 million, up 44.5%; and Japan took 1.451 million, down 23.3%.
The United States also led purchases of what Cecafé calls differentiated coffees, including specialty, certified and higher-quality lots. It bought 813,829 bags, or 16.4% of that segment.
Higher Volume, Lower Returns
Brazil exported 29.095 million bags from January through September, down 0.2% from the same period in 2025. Revenue fell 8.6%, from US$11.065 billion to US$10.113 billion. September’s average revenue came to roughly US$329 per bag, compared with about US$365 a year earlier, the report calculated.
Ferreira pointed to lower international prices, rain damage that reduced the quality of early arabica lots, and a larger share of cheaper canephora beans. Canephora, which includes conilon and robusta, climbed 68.3% to 5.162 million bags. Arabica made up 71.3% of shipments, at 20.739 million bags, but fell 10.7%.
New coffee began shipping in the 2026/27 crop year. Exports in its first three months, July through September, reached 11.210 million bags, up 15.5%, while revenue rose 0.8% to US$3.561 billion. Ferreira said rain delayed the harvest, mainly in July, and new beans began appearing for export in August. Cecafé forecast that Brazil’s total exports would keep rising and exceed the previous year’s total by the end of 2026. That remains a forecast, not a reported result.