SAO PAULO, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Brazil, the world's top coffee producer and exporter, saw its foreign sales grow 13.9 percent in 2019 compared to the year before, reaching 40.6 million bags, the national Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafe) said on Wednesday.
"Brazil maintained its global leadership position, accounting for 40 percent of the world export market," Cecafe's president, Nelson Carvalhaes, told reporters at a press conference.
"Last year, 128 countries consumed our product," he added.
The results for 2019 set a new record for the industry since 37 million bags of coffee were sold abroad in 2015, according to the council.
"Brazilian coffee improved a lot in recent decades and overcame critical events, such as the fall in prices," said Carvalhaes.
Brazil's gourmet coffee exports grew 21.2 percent in 2019 in terms of volume.
Last year, the United States continued to be the leading consumer market for Brazilian coffee (accounting for 19.4 percent of exports), followed by Germany (16.7 percent) and Italy (8.8 percent).
According to Cecafe, Brazilian coffee sales to BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) increased 28.8 percent.
