BRAZIL COFFEE EXPORTS DISRUPTED BY STRIKE
An 11-day-old strike by
Brazilian seamen is affecting coffee shipments and could lead
to a short term supply squeeze abroad, exporters said.
    They could not quantify how much coffee has been delayed
but said at least 40 pct of coffee exports are carried by
Brazilian ships and movement of foreign vessels has also been
disrupted by port congestion caused by the strike.
    A series of labor disputes and bad weather has meant
Brazil's coffee exports have been running at an average two
weeks behind schedule since the start of the year, one source
added.
    By the end of February shipments had fallen 800,000 bags
behind registrations, leaving around 2.4 mln bags to be shipped
during March. By March 10 only 230,000 bags had been shipped,
the sources said.
    Given Brazil's port loading capacity of around 100,000 bags
a day, even if normal operations were resumed immediately and
not interrupted by bad weather, some March registered coffee
will inevitably be shipped during April, they added.

 Reuter
