Brasilia, Feb 10 (IANS): Brazil, the world's leading coffee producer and exporter, exported 3,147,222 60 kg sacks of coffee in January this year, down 9.4 per cent compared to the same month last year (3,474,252 sacks), authorities said.

In a report issued on Tuesday, the Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafe) said the drop followed record coffee exports in 2020, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to the report, billing in the national currency (Brazilian real) increased 10.2 per cent compared to January 2020 as a result of the real's devaluation against the US dollar.

"We had good results in January, with an increase in billing in reals," Cecafe's president, Nicolas Rueda, said.

Taking into account the harvest period between July 2020 and January 2021, the first month of this year registered an increase of 17.2 per cent compared to the same period of the previous harvest, said Rueda.

According to the report, January foreign sales were lower than the 4,388,120 60 kg bags shipped in December 2020.

The main destination markets for Brazilian coffee are the US, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Colombia, Russia, Turkey, France and Canada.