Brazil exported 1.86 million 60-kg bags of green coffee in April, a 14.5 percent drop from a year earlier, on low supplies before the next crop hits the market, exporters association Cecaf said on Wednesday. Exports for the crop year that started in July were down 9.2 percent at 25 million bags through April. The April exports were as expected in the inter-harvest period, Cecaf President Nelson Carvalhaes said in a statement.

"This scenario will be maintained until the start of the 2017/2018 season, given low supplies," he said. Brazilian coffee farmers are starting to harvest the new crop, but larger volumes are not expected to reach exporters until June or July. Total coffee exports, which also include soluble and ground roasted, fell 13.5 percent to 2.1 million bags last month.

Copyright Reuters, 2017