In Jan, Brazil Coffee Expport jumps

* Earnings on coffee exports soar 71 percent from yr. ago

* New York May coffee futures tumble in afternoon trade

Brazil shipped 2.42 million 60-kg bags of unroasted, green coffee in February, up 19 percent from the 2.03 million bags exported in the same month last year, the Council of Coffee Exporters said on thursday.

Exports are higher this year partly on account of last year's harvest falling in an "on year" in the biennial cycle, making for a larger harvest than in the previous season. The 2011/12 crop harvesting from May, falls in a lower-output year.

Total shipments including roasted and ground coffees reached 2.66 million bags in February, up 18 percent from 2.26 million bags in the same month of 2010, Cecafe data showed.

New York May coffee futures were trading 5.2 percent lower at $2.7950 per lb, after hitting a 34-year high of $2.9485 per lb on Wednesday, buoyed a tight supply of higher quality and mild coffees.
 

The higher prices, which have more than doubled in the last 9 months, caused earnings from exports to rise 71 percent to $601.2 million from $355.5 million in the same month last year, despite the much smaller increase in actual coffee shipped.
 

Local brokerages say good quality coffees are now quite difficult to find and some producers have been hanging on to what supplies they have in a bet the market could climb higher still.
 

Brokerage Carvalhaes in the port town of Santos, was quoting semi-washed coffees at 600-650 reais ($361.44-$391.57) per 60-kg bag on Wednesday, breaking beyond the 600 reais maximum it was quoting for much of February.