While studying bsd.port.mk I ran across a reference to PACKAGES_REPOSITORY that seems like a typo. My assumption is that it is supposed to be PACKAGE_REPOSITORY as in the rest of the document (and in the FAQ, etc.).
Index: bsd.port.mk.5 =================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/src/share/man/man5/bsd.port.mk.5,v retrieving revision 1.567 diff -u -p -u -p -r1.567 bsd.port.mk.5 --- bsd.port.mk.5 28 Jul 2022 09:09:43 -0000 1.567 +++ bsd.port.mk.5 10 Sep 2022 01:57:58 -0000 @@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ owned by .Ev FETCH_USER , and creates directories .Ev LOCKDIR , -.Ev PACKAGES_REPOSITORY , +.Ev PACKAGE_REPOSITORY , .Ev PLIST_REPOSITORY and .Ev WRKOBJDIR