Terra Forte, one of the largest Brazilian coffee exporters, has filed for bankruptcy protection in a Sao Paulo state court, lawyers for the company said yesterday, Reuters reported. Law firm Freire, Assis, Sakamoto e Violante said that Terra Forte was looking to restructure 1.1 billion reais ($288.2 million) in debt. It also said the exporter was seeking to raise 60 million reais in working capital from investors to maintain operations. Some coffee traders in London said in recent days that they had heard that Terra Forte had problems fulfilling contracts with European importers, and cited that as a reason behind a short-covering movement in the coffee market in recent sessions. The exporter has a capacity to ship around 2.5 million bags of green coffee per year and was among the five largest players in the Brazilian export market.
