Cocoa Bean Shell Imports into Brazil (NCM 1802)

9,266 t of bean shell cleared in January-August 2026, more than in any full year from 2022 to 2025, with bulk lots at USD 562/t FOB

Brazil buys cocoa bean shell every month. Brazil's import declarations record 9,266 t of NCM 1802.00.00 (cocoa shells, husks, skins and other cocoa waste) in January-August 2026, all of it by sea and worth USD 5.44 million FOB, which is already more than in any full year from 2022 to 2025: 6,423 t in 2022, 7,499 t in 2023, 9,240 t in 2024 and 8,705 t in 2025. Leaving out 82 t of specialty lots from Poland, Belgium and Bulgaria declared above USD 1,500/t FOB, bulk shell averaged USD 562/t FOB and USD 651/t CIF in 2026, against USD 449 FOB and USD 517 CIF in 2025, USD 299 FOB in 2024 and USD 253 FOB in 2023. Peru supplied 39.6% of the 2026 tonnage at USD 613/t FOB, Ghana 24.4% at USD 531, Nigeria 12.1% at USD 524, Malaysia 10.0% at USD 528 and Ecuador 9.4% at USD 522. Declared ocean freight ran from USD 46/t on Peruvian lots to USD 81 on Ghanaian, USD 130 on Malaysian and USD 148 on Nigerian, so the CIF values sit closer together, between USD 602 and USD 672/t. Every month of 2026 cleared more than 570 t, and August was the largest at 1,923 t. The importers of record are domiciled in Espírito Santo (50.7% of the 2026 tonnage), Minas Gerais (27.7%), Rio de Janeiro (11.6%), Santa Catarina (6.0%) and São Paulo (3.2%); Alagoas, 21.9% of the 2025 imports, has imported none in January-August 2026. The lots cleared at Rio de Janeiro (36.0%), Santos (31.3%), Vitória (24.2%) and São Francisco do Sul (7.0%). Brazil's own grinders make shell as well: the 2025 grind was 195,882 t of beans, down 14.6% (AIPC), and at 80 to 120 kg of shell per tonne of beans that is roughly 15,700 to 23,500 t of shell, but a 2015 study of the five south-Bahia grinders found their shell being discarded or burned as fuel, the boiler studied running on 80% eucalyptus chips and 20% shell. Brazil also pays well for what it imports: Belgium declared 17,737 t of HS 1802 imports in 2025 at USD 210/t, and Brazil's 2025 bulk average of USD 517/t CIF is about two and a half times that.

The rules sit with MAPA. NCM 1802.00.00 is listed under the Plant Health Department (DSV) in the annex of IN MAPA 51/2011, so the importer files MAPA's licence (LPCO) on Portal Único Siscomex. MAPA's PVIA database of authorised plant imports (updated 25 September 2026) lists cocoa only as beans and seed: beans from Ghana, Indonesia, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, and from Côte d'Ivoire suspended since Despacho Decisório 456 of 23 February 2026. It has no entry for shell, yet shell from Peru, Ghana, Nigeria, Malaysia and Ecuador clears every year, so the risk category, any phytosanitary certificate and the LPCO route are confirmed with the importer's customs broker for each origin before a lot is offered. Import duty is the 9% TEC rate (Res. Gecex 272/2021) on the customs value, with PIS-import at 2.1%, COFINS-import at 9.65%, IPI not taxed, ICMS by state and AFRMM at 8% of the ocean freight. Two end uses carry their own rules. Shell for animal feed can be imported only from a foreign establishment registered with MAPA (Decree 12,031/2024, art. 86). And Law 15,404/2026 excludes shells, pellicles and other bean by-products from total cocoa solids, subject to technical limits that ANVISA is drafting (contributions open until 13 October 2026), with the law in force 360 days after its publication on 11 May 2026. The specification is the buyer's to write. Clean bean shell carries 5.96 to 11.42 g/100 g of ash in the published studies, 8.3% as fed on average across 246 INRA-CIRAD-AFZ samples, and about 38.4% of that ash is acid-insoluble, mainly silica such as sand and siliceous earth, so soil picked up in handling shows in both figures. Theobromine runs 0.39 to 1.83 g/100 g and caffeine 0.04 to 0.42 g/100 g; neonicotinoid residues concentrate in the shell, and 18 to 56% of a bean's cadmium sits there. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers bean shell to Brazilian importers against an analysis of a surveyor-drawn sample of the lot on offer: moisture, total and acid-insoluble ash, fat, theobromine, aflatoxins and ochratoxin A, cadmium and lead, pesticide residues and Salmonella, with winnowed bean shell confirmed as distinct from pod husk. We quote in containers, CFR Santos, Rio de Janeiro or Vitória, with inspection at stuffing and payment against documents. Send the end use, your specification limits, the monthly tonnage, the discharge port and the importer of record.