BRAZIL COFFEE EXPORTS DISRUPTED BY STRIKE An 11-day-old strike by Brazilian seamen is affecting coffee shipments and could lead to a short term supply squeeze abroad, exporters said. They could not quantify how much coffee has been delayed but said at least 40 pct of coffee exports are carried by Brazilian ships and movement of foreign vessels has also been disrupted by port congestion caused by the strike. A series of labor disputes and bad weather has meant Brazil's coffee exports have been running at an average two weeks behind schedule since the start of the year, one source added. By the end of February shipments had fallen 800,000 bags behind registrations, leaving around 2.4 mln bags to be shipped during March. By March 10 only 230,000 bags had been shipped, the sources said. Given Brazil's port loading capacity of around 100,000 bags a day, even if normal operations were resumed immediately and not interrupted by bad weather, some March registered coffee will inevitably be shipped during April, they added.