Brazilian coffee producers will be granted a 2 billion-real ($1.09 billion) loan from Banco do Brasil SA, said Silas Brasileiro, president of the National Coffee Council.
The loan should be available starting in June before the harvest begins, Brasileiro said today in a telephone interview from Brasilia. Last year, producers began to receive financing after the harvest in September, he said.
Brasileiro predicted that coffee prices will end this year at a level close to 2011. Banco do Brasil wasn’t immediately available to comment.
The price of arabica beans rose to a 14-year high of $3.089 a pound in New York on May 3 as heavy rainfall cut output in Colombia. Coffee slipped 5.7 percent in New York last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“We never considered retaining coffee,” Brasileiro said. “We want to have a coordinated flow of production.”
Arabica coffee futures for May delivery gained 1.4 percent to $1.8065 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York today.
Brazil’s government has stated that there are plans to double financing available for coffee storage this year for the world’s largest coffee producer.
Investment for storage would rise to 1.5 billion reais, Edilson Martins de Alcantara, director of the coffee department at the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, said in an interview in London on March 6.
“The aim is to enable the producer to store coffee and to sell it at the best opportunity,” he said at a meeting of the International Coffee Organization.
Source: bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-11/brazilian-coffee-producers-to-get-2-billion-real-loan-1-.html
Brazilian Coffee Producers to Get 2 Billion-Real Loan
